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THINGS SEEN IN EGYPT

BOOKS ON EGYPT

By Dean and Mrs. Butcher

ARMENOSA OF EGYPT : A Romance of the Arab
Couquest. By C H. Butchkr. Blackwood.
4s. 6d. net.

THE ORIFLAMME IN EGYPT : A Romance of the
Ninth Crusade. By C. H. Butcher. Dent.
4s. 6d. net.

THE STORY OF THE CHURCH OF EGYPT.
Two volumes. By E. L. Butcher. Smith and
Elder. IGs.

THE COPTIC CHURCHES. Pamphlet for Tourists.
By E. L. Butcher. 6d. net.

THE SOUND OF A VOICE THAT IS STILL. A

Memoir of the late Dean Butcher. With some
sermons. Dent. 4s. Gd. net.

All these may be obtained in Cairo.

Xew Yori.

A SHIP (IK THE DKSERT OUTSIDE CAIRO.

The ladies are out for an airing ; they are passing the tombs ot bygone
INIoslem rulers.

THINGS SEEN IN
EGYPT

E. L. BUTCHER

j I

AUTHOR OF " THE STORY OP THE CHURCH OF EGYPT," £r=f., (Sr'c.

WITH FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON

SEELEY AND CO. LIMITED

38 Great Russell Street
1910

Uniform with this volume
Cloth, 2S. net ; leather, 3s. net ; velvet leather, 5s. net

THINGS SEEN IN EGYPT

By E. L. butcher

With 50 Illustrations
"Mrs. Butcher is thoroughly conversant with her
subject . . . excellently written." — Globe.

THINGS SEEN IN HOLLAND

By C. E. ROCHE

With 50 Illustrations

" A charming addition to the series . . . thoroughly
well done and satisfactory . . . eminently readable." —
Morning Post.

THINGS SEEN IN CHINA

By J. R. CHITTY

With 50 Illustrations

" By a writer who adds grace and style to entire
familiarity with the country and people." — The Bir-
mingham Post.

THINGS SEEN IN JAPAN

By CLIVE HOLLAND

With go Iliitstrations

"An attractive volume ; the photographs with which
it is illustrated are admirable. The subjects give a
very fair idea of the beauty and charm of a fascinating
country." — Manchester Guardian.

SEELEY & CO. LIMITED

/^^-' 688573

MY HUSBAND

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1

PAGB

A Land of Light - - - - 15

CHAPTER H
Home Life - - - - - 31

CHAPTER HI
Provincial Life - - - - 72

CHAPTER IV
The Workaday World - - - ll6

CHAPTER V

The Ancient Faith . _ . 137

vii

Contents

CHAPTER VI

PACK

Some Egyptian Festivals - - - 147

CHAPTER Vn
The Five Cities - - - - 187

CHAPTER Vni
On the Nile .... 206

CHAPTER IX

The Southern Province - - - 231

CHAPTER X
In the Desert ... - 240

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

A Ship of the Desert outside Cairo - Frontispiece

Carving a Statue _ . - page xiii

The First Pyramid ever constructed - To face page 16
A Native Cargo Boat on the Blue

Nile - - - - „ 20

Evening at Philae - - - „ 32
The Harem Windows of a Wealthy

Cairene's House - • • j^ 38

A Street Scene at Esneh - • ,, 42

A Street Scene at Luxor - • „ 48

An Arab Village - - - ,, 54

An Arab Village Street - - ,j GO

Water Buffaloes - - - „ 66
On the Way to the Pyramids from

Cairo - - - - „ 72
ix

List of Illustrations

Unloading Sugar-Cane • - To face page 78

Feluccas, or Native Boats, on the

Nile at Cairo - - - „ 84

On the Banks of the Nile - - ,, 88

A Group of Bisharin at Assouan - ,, 92
How the Mails are carried in the

Desert - - - - „ 96
A Bisharin Home in the Arabian

Desert - - - - „ 100

Water-Carriers at Luxor - - ,, 106
The Most Beautiful Colonnade in

Egj-pt - - - - „ 112
'ITie Interior of Queen Nefertari's

Tomb - - - - „ 118

The Deserted Temple at Luxor - „ 124

Statues of Ramses XL at Luxor - „ 128

A Nile Boat under FuU Sail - - „ 132

A Cairo Snake-Charmer • - „ 138

An Arab Big \\'heel - - - ,, 1*4
The Statue of Ramses II., an Em-

hellishment of his now vanished

Temple at Memphis • - „ 148

List of Illustrations

Queen Hatasu's Temple at Thebes
Cairo from the Mokattam Hills
The Nile ....

ilie Crew of a Dahabeah
The Nile Bank at Wady Saba
One of the Colossi of Thebes -
Thebes and the Nile, from Karnak -
The Temple of Seti I. at Thebes
Native Methods of ^^'orking at

Karnak . - - -

The Valley of the Tombs of the Kings -
The Avenue of Sphinxes at Karnak -
The Bazeiar at Assouan
Assouan and Elephantine Island
The Island of Philae •
The Assouan Dam ...
The River at Korosko
The Grotto Temple of Abu Simbel
Nile Boats, and Temple of Abu

Simbel - - - - „ 232

A Caravan on its Way across the

Desert • - - - „ 236

face page

152

156

160

})

164

168

172

178

184

))

190

}}

196

202

206

}}

210

214

}}

218

)}

222

}}

226

List of Illustrations

The Great Pyramid of Gizeh - - To face page 2iO

A Group of Natives at the Ancient

Temple at Wady Saba - ,, 244

The Sixty-five Feet High Portrait-
Statue of Ramses II. - - ,, 248

Painting a Statue - - _ at end

CARVING A STATUB.

Things Seen in Egypt

CHAPTER I

A LAND OF LIGHT

EGYPT has been aptly called the Land of
Paradox, a country full of charming contra-
dictions, of bewildering surprises, of grim
tragedy, and farcical humour which reminds one of
Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas. But, looking
at the outer aspect of the country, we may say that
Egypt is pre-eminently a land of light. One does
not realize at first how much the charm of Egyptian
scenery depends on the transparent sunlight which
we are now doing so much to destroy with the
fogs and smoke of Western civilization. A tourist
who for the first time thunders across the Delta in
his corridor express on a winter day may find
little beauty in the long monotonous lines of the
mud-coloured plain with patches of dull green
crops. But the sun shines out, and straightway
the whole scene is transformed. The little canals
shine like ribbons of silver on the purple earth, the
field of half-grown clover becomes a shimmer of
15

Things Seen in Egypt

translucent emerald, and the little children, in
their nondescript robes of red and yellow and pink,
come out like butterflies to join their blue-shirted
fathers or their black-veiled mothers. The low
range of sandhills in the distance assumes in-
describable shades of pink and saffron in the trans-
forming light, and the far-off grove of palms grows
blue by contrast. The white dome of a Sheikh's
tomb shines out from among the piled-up hovels
of a native village, and a wheeling flock of pigeons
becomes a moving constellation of stars in the blue
depth of the sky. A long string of camels pace
the neighbouring " gisr," or raised bank, with
their usual air of supercilious indifference as the
noisy innovation rushes by.

At first sight there does not seem to be much
change here in the last half-century. In spite of
steam-pumps and Western machinery', one still
sees everywhere the shadoof or tlie sakeer at
work when the Nile has gone down and the water
needs to be raised to the level of the fields. The
sakeer is at work the whole year round, but many
of the shadoofs are only used when the Nile is
very low. Then you may see a tier of three or
four one above another, each worked by a man or
two men, who in summer are often without any
clothing at all, except an almost invisible loin-
cloth. They pull the rope down between them
and toss the basket or bucket of water into the
reservoir above them, whence it is taken in the
same way by the man above them. The sakeer is
i6

.v,... I /,,(,,;.•, ; .It .: : indon &• New York.

TilK FIRST PYRAMID KVER CONSTKICTEI).

This picture also shows one of the earliest of man's occupations. These
gaunt sheep find some pasture near the adioining village of Sakkara.

A Land of Light

a heavy cojTged wheel, generally of sycamore-
wood, to which a cow or bullock is harnessed, with
a cloth bound over his eyes to keep him in the
circle. The cog-wheel turns another at right
angles which has earthen jars bound upon it, and
this goes down into the water, bringing the jars
up full and sending down the empty ones. Some
of these sakeers are made to serve also as rough
sundials. Pieces of wood are set in the ground
round the circle, and as the shadow moves it marks
the hour for the peasants in the neighbourhood.

The ancient Egyptian year was divided not into
four seasons, but three — the time of the inundation
or Nile flood, the time of sowing, and the time of
reaping. Under the English engineers the Nile
is being brought gradually under control, as it
used to be in the days of the Pharaohs. Soon, it
is said, basin irrigation will be a thing of the past,
but one of the most picturesque aspects of Egypt
will go with it. Visitors are rarely early enough
to see the beautiful exj^anse of water which turns
so much of the country round Cairo and elsewhere
into a vast lake. The villages — all, it will be
noticed, built on slightly rising ground — rise like so
many islands out of the water, and flat-bottomed,
heavily laden boats ply between them. It is one
of the most beautiful times in the year, especially
when the whole western sky glows with the deep
pure red of an Egyptian autumn sunset, and is
reflected on the waveless world of water. Then
you may go to Sakhara without trouble, or the

19 B

Things Seen in Egypt

necessity foi* donkey-boys. You may step into the
boat at Bedreshayn, and glide noiselessly over the
open lake and through the groves of palm-trees,
standing knee-deep in the water, disturbing only
the herons from the tiny islets where they stand
sentinel, and land in the desert within a walk of
the Tombs.

But in the Turkish days the uncontrolled flood
sometimes did much damage ; an extra rise of a
few feet spelt ruin and disaster everywhere. I
remember such a flood shortly after I went to
Egypt in which no fewer than 5,000 people are
said to have been drowned in the diSerent villages
which were overflowed. In the same year the
road to the Pyramids was washed away, and there
were thirteen accidents to the telegraph-linesy?-07«
bouts sailing over them !

The ordinary cargo boat on the Nile is very
like the boats used on the Lake of Geneva, a
clumsy but very picturesque object. A boat laden
with tibbin (chop])ed straw) is like a floating stack,
for boards are put across the boat which project on
either side and almost hide her from sight. On
this the stack is built with the most marvellous
regularity, as if cut by a knife, and no wind seems
able to disturb its outline.

When the floods are gone and the Nile shrinks
lower and lower in its bed, then you understand
how Egypt got its name of El Khemi, or the
Black Land — the Land of Ham, as it is written in
the Authorized Version. The saturated soil is a
20

^^^w»4rt:;i lift^.t^

., irm K. Rose. < :■■ .',:,■

A NATIVE CARGO-BOAT ON THE BLUE NILE.

The "nuggar" is constantly to be seen often laden to the gunwale, and
Its rigging looliing not unlike a cage.

A Land of Light

deep purple black, and on this, before the water
is really quite gone, the sower goes forth to sow
his seed. Before many days have passed a faint
green tinge spreads over the black, and suddenly,
as it seems, the whole country is a vivid green,
which the sun turns to gold and perridot. The
rapid growth of everything is wonderful. I have
seen land from which the man in charge solemnly
assured me that he had taken seven crops in
fifteen months — five of clover, one of sugar-cane,
and one of something else, which I have forgotten.
As the river shrinks lower still, and the banks of
the Nile are revealed, the thritty Egyptian sows
melon-seed down to the water's lowest edge, for
this is a crop that can be harvested long before
the sloping banks will be covered again by the
rising water. There are several kinds of melons
in Egypt ; the best is the shammam, but the
commonest is the batikh, or water-melon, with
its hard green rind and rose-coloured inside.
The Egyptians say that open-air bathing should
begin when the watermelon comes in. Some
natives use it as a charm to drive away ants from
their houses. They cut a piece out of the first
melon brought into the house and suspend it in a
corner. It is believed that this will effectually
drive away the ants. "Written on the leaf of
the water-melon" is a proverbial expression for
anything widely known.

When the Nile is at its lowest comes the
harvest, when a casual observer might think the
23 B 2

Things Seen in Egypt

peasant takes his work very leisurely. But if he
sleeps a good deal of the day, it is because for
quite half the month the moon gives him light
enough to work under more comfortable con-
ditions. And after that the land is at its ugliest :
long stretches of bare earth, which the sun is
rapidly pulverizing to dust ; wide reaches of
desert sand shimmering white in the noonday
sun. Still, at evening the clouds of sunlit dust
make beautiful effects as the flocks of mingled
sheep and goats follow their shepherd to the
village along the bank. These raised banks are
the only roads over the greater part of Egypt,
and on one side there is generally a canal, which
is dry for three or four months of the year.

There ai-e beautiful trees and gardens in Egypt,
but there are few wild-flowers ; in fact, I think
there are people who would be tempted to say
'' There are none," and so pass on. For the Valley
of the Nile is a fertile country, which has been
carefully cultivated for centuries, and is too
valuable to waste in banks or hedgerows, where
unprofitable flowers might be allowed to flourish.
To the ordinary traveller the land must appear
alike without boundaries or hedgerows. It is
true that almost the only wild-flowers which have
not been eliminated are of two kinds — those which
grow in the desert, and those which, in spite
of constant dredging and drought, continue to
flourish in the canals.

Of the two classes, the former are much the
24

A Land of Light

more numerous. The low sand-dunes of the
northern coast, which look so desolate in the
sweep of winter winds or in the scorching glare of
late summer, wake to lite with each returning
spring, and clothe themselves with a veil of
beauty. Here are poppies — not the pale scarlet
of our cornfields — but blood-red against the azure
sea, and so full of sunlight that their petals seem
transparent. Here is the waxen blossom of the
Star of Bethlehem, and that field of cloth of gold
is a mass of yellow daisies — or should one rather
call them wild marigolds ?

As you ride out eastAvard along the coast you
come to one tiny oasis after another, set like
enamelled jewels in the golden desert. Often the
water which has worked the miracle and caused
the desert to blossom is not visible ; you only
know it has been there by the blessing it has
left. Here you must get down and go on your
knees fully to appreciate the workmanship of the
fairy carpet underneath the palms. The flowers
are all on a miniature scale — marigolds the size
of pimpernels ; mignonette that needs a micro-
scope to reveal its dainty perfection ; stocks about
the size of forget-me-nots, which yet manage to
give out as much fragrance as their giant sisters of
the garden. Almost all the common flowers of
English cottage gardens are here in miniature,
and many more with names known only to the
learned.

In the inland deserts this is not the case : the

Things Seen in Egypt

flowers have no familiarity to Englisli eyes, and
are generally far. less beautiful, though doubtless
more valuable from a scientific point of view. I
have seen a large table filled by Professor Schwein-
furth with masses of desert flowers of different
kinds, mostly of subdued colouring, and all with
names longer than themselves. These came from
the lonely valleys in the stony hills beyond
Helouan.

Towards the west of Alexandria, beyond the
stone-quarries of Mex, the flowers grow thickly
and are larger in size. Here are the purple bells
of the grape-hyacinth, and the pale lilac of a kind
of sea-lavender. One may gather about forty
varieties in a morning's walk, but it is very
difficult to learn the names of most of them.
Here, too, straight out of the sand, by the blue
ripples of the sea, grows one of the most beautiful
wild-flowers of Egjpt — the white amaryllis. Its
delicate white flowers seem almost as much out of
place by the seashore as a lady in white satin
building sand-castles, and yet this is so truly its
home that the commonest name for it is the
Mex lily.

Near this native village the desert has been
made to blossom in a more practical fashion.
Potatoes and tomatoes are two of the vegetables
most in demand now in Egypt, and the natives,
always on the alert for any agricultural oppor-
tunity, soon discovered that they could be grown
in sand far more profitablv than the spare and
26 ■

A Land of Light

stunted barley which they had been accustomed
to raise in patches. But this barren reach of
coast is a prey to all the winds of heaven, and the
ordinary native shelter of reeds was found insuffi-
cient. So they set to work and dug long sandpits,
like giant furrows, some 3 or 4 feet wide, from
east to west along the desert. At the bottom
of these pits the crops now thrive luxuriantly — or
did when I was last there to see.

Almost the only exception to these two classes
of flowers — the desert and the water — is the
Egyptian wild-rose. It has been largely intro-
duced of late years into gardens for hedges, and
is sometimes called the Soudan rose.

Grasses and rushes of several kinds grow plenti-
fully in Egypt. There is a silvery grass that
trembles in soft masses on the banks like a sunlit
wreath of mist ; there are bulrushes growing by
the salt lakes of the desert. But the commonest
and one of the handsomest is the rustling reed
which grows along the banks of the canals, and
sends up its plumed head to the height of 10 feet
to 12 feet ; it is like a coarse kind of pampas
grass, and one feels that these must have been the
reeds to which the barber of King Midas confided
his secret long ago. There is a thistle, too, which
deserves mention for the beautiful form and mark-
ing of its leaves — dark green, with a running
pattern of white lines.

But the wild-flowers of the water are far more
beautiful than the wild-flowers of the desert.
27

Things Seen in Egypt

One of these, which has been brought down from
the Soudan within the last twenty years, has run
so wild in Egyptian waters that already some
people find it a nuisance. One of the great ponds
in the Gizeh gardens became so choked with it
that the elephant had to be requisitioned to clear
it out. This is the water hyacinth, a beautiful
flower something like a hyacinth, but the flowers
are larger, more delicate, and always of the same
colour — a delicate lilac deepening into purple at
the heart of each floweret. The leaves are deep,
bright green, and stand well out of the water,
with a globular swelling at the base of the stalk.
On some of the reaches of the White Nile this
beautiful flower is said to form an important
ingredient in the harmful "sudd." It floats upon
the water, its fern-like roots twine together in a
thick mass, and in a short time the pond or river
seems to disappear.

Then there are three kinds of water-lilies — the
common white water-lily which we know so well
on English ponds, and two kinds of the old
Egyptian lotus. I remember many years ago
being shown the blue lotus of ancient Egypt as a
great rarity in Kew Gardens, and was told that it
had long become extinct in Egypt itself. But it
flowers in the canals of the Delto now, as it has
flowered year by year for thousands of years, and
may be found there by anyone who knows where
to look for it. The pale blue colour, pointed
petals, and long, upstanding stem may be recog-
28

A Land of Light

nized at a glance by one familiar with the pictured
records of ancient Egypt. It is not, however, so
beautiful as the many-petalled floating cup of
the common white water-lily, which flowers for
miles in the canals along the railway route from
Alexandria.

The queen of all Egyptian flowers, however, is
the great white lotus, but till the last few years
this bloomed only in forgotten corners of Egypt,
in waters which washed the feet of those ancient
towns where hardly one stone is left upon another.
In obedience to an English command, a plant of
this royal flower was brought from its splendid
seclusion and set for the admiration of all men in
a little lake in Gizeh gardens. Here, year by year,
when all the tourists have gone and Egypt is most
lovely, this glorious creature rises out of the
water like Venus from the sea, and each year
flowers in greater profusion, till now hai-dly a
glimpse of the water can be seen in summer, only
the great green leaves like serried shields set close
together, and above them, on stems as straight as
the columns which they suggested to the men of
old, the white lotus opens her chalices of pearl.

1 know few more beautiful sights in Egypt than
this, but only those can see it whose lot is cast in
Cairo from the end of May to the end of August.
The lotus grows now in other places within reach,
but this comparatively secluded spot in the fields
is where she best loves to hold her court. The
beautiful heads stand up erect to the brilliant sun-
29

Things Seen in Egypt

shine in countless hundreds above the cool green
leaves, which are themselves some 2 feet out of
the water. Round the pond there is a growth of
low wood, where the black and white kingfisher
loves to come in the summer evening, now motion-
less on the drooping branches, now hovering with
butterfly flight over the glimpse of open water
between the lilies. When the long, stifling day is
drawing to its close, and work in the dusty streets
is over, it is a constant delight to seek the shelter
of the plane-trees on the edge of this quiet water,
and linger in the cool green silence to watch the
dying sunlight fade from off the queenly flowers.

CHAPTER 11

HOME LIFE

THE domestic life of the Eg)'ptian is outwardly
much the same, whether he is Christian or
Moslem, This is chiefly because centuries
of oppression have taught the Copt to conform in
all indifferent matters to the customs of his
conquerors. With regard to the mass of the
population, however, it must not be forgotten that
the real difference between Copt and Moslem is
one not of race, but of religion. The Moslem
represents the J-'-g}ptians whose forefathers, to
escape persecution, renounced the Christian faith
for that of their conquerors ; adopting also their
speech and even their very name, for the Moslems
are generally called Arabs in Egypt, though there
are hardly any real Arabs in the country. The
Christians, who have kept their old name of
Egyptian, though disguised out of all recognition
(Copt), were first left in a minority in the land
after the wholesale slaughter of Christians which
followed on the last great revolt of the Egyptians
against the Arabs (circa a.d. 830). Every persecu-
31

Things Seen in Egypt

tion since that date has still further lessened their
numbers by death or apostasy, and in the course
of centuries they have adopted not the faith, but
the customs and speech, of their conquerors in
order to elude obsei'vation as much as possible.
But they rightly claim that they are the truest
representatives of the ancient Egyptians, since
they have been careful to retain purity of race by
marriage. As, however, in common parlance, the
Egyptians take the names of the two different
races, the Moslems calling themselves Arabs and
the Chx'istians Copts — which has come to signify
Chnstian Egyptians — it will be more convenient to
the general reader if we do the same.

One of the customs common to both which has
come down to them probably from pre-Christian
times is connected with their first entrance into
the world. I have seen the ceremony performed
by Mohammedans, and a young Copt of my
acquaintance wrote for me at my request the
following account of it as performed in his own
house. I give it in his own words :

" Four months ago my sister Sophia brought
forth a female child. The seventh day after that
of the birth was celebrated by the usual ceremony.
On the night preceding it many female visitors
came into our house, and we all sat in the
drawing-room. Sophia and her baby child were
amongst us. A basin full of water was brought
and put in the midst of us. In that basin an
32

"^wm

S P4

« 3

Home Life

empty goollah^ decorated with all the jewellery
and ornaments of women that were at that time
in our possession was j)laced. The goollah-was
clothed in a piece of rich silk cut and made to
its shape. Beautiful necklaces made of gold,
diamond ean-ings, bracelets, were all hung round
its neck. Our women believe that the more
richly the goollah is dressed, the more fortunate
the child will become. They spare nothing that
they are able to lend for the adornment of this
goollah. They intend by doing this to woo
Fortune to come and smile over the child in its
cradle, and when it is in the wide world. The
act of dressing the goollah was accompanied by
the sound of tom-toms (native drums) and shrill,
quavering cries of joy called ' Zaghareet.' Then
all people present began to choose a name for the

^ A goollah is a small porous jar for holding water.
When the British troops came to Egypt in 1882, the old
harem palace at the citadel was turned into a hospital, and
is used as such to this day (1908). Some of the English
ladies who lived in Cairo used to go to see the sick soldiers,
and various meetings were held, at which we were all asked
to suggest alleviations. I mentioned that if they were
supplied with water in goollahs it would be much cooler,
hesides being less expensive than in glass. At first there
was a difficTilty, because no one present appeared to know
what I meant by a goollah. Lady Baring, whose visitors
•we were, finally produced one from the back regions to
explain. Then a very charming young lady rose to im-
prove upon the suggestion. She wished every ward to be
supplied with gasometers ! Further bewilderment on the
part of the assembly ! It was eventually discovered that
she meant gasogenes.

Things Seen in Egypt

new-born child. We brought three candles of
the same material and of equal length, and stuck
them to the edge of the basin. We then gave
each candle of the three a name which we had,
after our long discussion, chosen. At the time
of naming the candles my uncle offered a short
prayer, after which all of the three candles were
lit exactly at the same moment. We then enter-
tained all our friends with a nice supper, as usual
on other occasions of festivities. Supper over, we
all gathered round the basin, joked and foretold
a thousand happy things that were to happen to
the child, until the three candles were nearly
burnt out. We watched them as they were
dying away, and waited with impatience to see
which candle would burn longer than the other
two, for the name it represented became the
child's name. The midwife of the family was
present all through the ceremony, and when the
name was decided upon she took the goollah. j)ut
it upon a tray, and presented it to each of the
women, who put their ' nukoot ' (money) for her
into the tray.

'• In the morning the midwife brought the child,
wrapped in a handsome shawl, and put it on her
knee. Then one of the women present took a
brass mortar and struck it repeatedly with the
pestle as if pounding, to accustom the child to
noise, that it might not be frightened afterwards
by the music and other sounds of mirth. After
this the child was put into a sieve and shaken,
36

Home Life

it being supposed that this operation is bene-
ficial to its stomach. The mother was then
ordered to step seven times over the sieve. Each
time she did so the midwife struck the mortar
with the pestle once, and addressed the child,
saying : ' Don't cry when your mother is busy in
cleaning the house ;' ' Let her cook easily ;'
'Don't trouble her while she is making bread;'
'When she has a hand-work to do, close your
eyes and sleep,' and many other valuable com-
mandments and instructions, each sentence being
hammered home with a blow upon the mortar.
This being done, we began the procession. The
object of this procession was to carry the child
through all the apartments of the house so as to
make its spirit at home in these places. The
procession was conducted in this way : The
mother bore her child in her arms and stood in
the middle. She was then surrounded with
women and children, each of whom bore several
wax candles, of various colours, cut in two, lighted
and stuck into a small lamp, or a paste of henna
upon a small round tray. The midwife at the
same time carried a grate on her head with fire
in it, and walked in front. She sprinkled upon
the floor of each room, and threw into the fire
some salt, saying as she did this, 'The foul salt
be in the eye of the envier !' This ceremony of
the sprmkling of salt is considered a preservative,^
for the child and the mother, from the Evil Eye.
On the door of every room that had been visited
37

Things Seen in Egypt

by the procession a cross was painted. The
children cried at the top of their voices, saying,
' Thy hands and thy feet, a golden ring in thine
ears,' etc. When the procession had completed
its round in the house, it came again into the
room from which it began. The child, wrapped
up and placed on a fine mattress, was shown to
each of the women present, who, looking at its
face, said, 'In the name of the Cross! In the
name of the Father and Son ! God give him
long life !' and put an embroidered handkerchief,
with a gold or silver coin tied up in one of the
corners, on the child's head or by its side. The
midwife then distributed cakes, dried fruits and
sweetmeats, to all of us. Some hazel-nuts had
been put in the water of the basin the night
before this day ; each member of the family kept
one of these hazel-nuts in his purse of money to
preserve it from being empty. This ceremony is
now going out of use, after it has been practised
for a long time by nearly all Egyptians, both
Copts and Mohammedans. But still we practise
it ; old customs are still living in our house." ^

' Reading Abd-el-Melik's letter, I remember that this
ceremony was once performed for the child of an English
woman iu Egypt. The charming young lady referred to in
connection with gasometers married in due course, and
aft r some yeare she brought forth her firstborn son in her
father's house in Egypt. She was so much beloved by the
native servants that they broke through their usual reserve,
and insisted that their "sitt's " baby must be properly wel-
comed into the world. They were all Mohammedans, so

> Co/'yrii;h/. Uiideiivood &- i'. London ;}" Xew \\

THE HAREM M IXnOWS OF A WEALTHY CAIRENPi's HOUSE.

The outside of the houses of the rich in Cairo give no idea of their interior
beauty. This is the courtyard of such a bouse.

Home Life

The Moslem women, as is well known, are
never supposed to see any men except their
husbands and immediate relations, and are kept
strictly to their own apartments, or harem. The
Christian women mingle freely with the other
members of the household and any man brought
into it by the head of the house, who is, however,
very careful to whom he extends this privilege.
But they are not supposed to speak to visitors,
unless invited to do so for some special reason ;
and the young girls stand till they are bidden to
sit down. Slaves are rare in Coptic households
— personally I have never seen or heard of one —
and less common than they used to be in Moslem
ones, as they are becoming difficult to get. It is
not uncommon for a rich Moslem lady, generally
a Turkish one, to oifer to adoj)t a European girl-
child, and provide for her handsomely. But
Europeans need to be very careful how they
accept such an oflfer for anyone belonging to
them. The child would be kindly treated, but
in some cases it would merely mean that a white

that this custom is one of many which has come down alike
to Christian and Mohammedan descendants of the ancient
Egyptians. But in the case of the Mohammedans it was
the men, and not the women, who made the procession.
They came into her bedroom at the due time, and the Eng-
lish woman smiled trustfully at them as they bore away the
precious babe, and carried it up and down, in and out of
every place in the gi-eat house with the proper ritual neces-
saiy for its happiness in a strange world.

41 C

Things Seen in Egypt

slave had been acquired for the harem without
payment.

The rite of circumcision is of course enjoined
as a rehgious duty among Mohammedans ; among
the Copts it is sometimes practised as a matter of
health, but without any disgusting display or
publicity. The wedding ceremonies differ also,
as the seclusion of the Moslem women renders
necessary. I have often heard Europeans talk
of going to a Moslem wedding, but I never yet
heard of any outsider except myself and one other
woman wlio had seen the actual ceremony. It
is performed in comparative privacy, and none
but men are supposed to be present. Two rows
of men sit opposite to each other, the bride-
groom and his friends on one side, the man who
does proxy for the bride, with his companions,
on the other. A fiki (schoolmaster) marries the
two men, solemnly joining their hands, over
which a handkerchief is placed to represent the
marriage canopy. The bride is supposed to be
somewhere within hearing, and to acknowledge at
the critical moment that she accepts the man re-
presenting her as her proxy. In the case of a Coptic
wedding, the custom, under Moslem dominion, had
become something like the Mohammedan usage.
The first part of the marriage service would be gone
through solemnly with the bridegroom alone, sit-
ting in his wedding garment with an empty chair at
his side, while the poor little bride peeped at her
own wedding from behind the door. But when that
42

Home Life

part of the service came for which her responses
were necessary, she was solemnly brought in,
veiled much like an English bride, but supported,
as if she were unable to walk, by a man on either
side, and in the rest of the ceremony she took
her proper part. Now she is recovering still
more of her ancient freedom, with the full
consent and encouragement of her mankind.
Christian weddings are now often solemnized in
the church instead of in the house, as considera-
tions of safety rendered necessary in the old days.
Both Christians and Moslems make the Zeffet el
Hamman, or procession of the bath. The bride
is dressed in gala attire, and, attended by all her
female relations and friends, preceded by a band
of musicians. If a Moslem, and unable to afford
a carriage, the bride is enveloped in a shawl from
head to foot, so completely covered as a rule that
she cannot see where she is going, and has to
be guided by her friends. The only difference
between the two was that, until the English
came, the Christians could not venture to make
their processions by light of day or with sound of
music, but moved through the streets at dead of
night, and carrying torches. The second proces-
sion is when the bride is taken from her own
home to that of the bridegroom. In these days
even the poorest people in the large towns try to
afford a close carriage for the bride on this occasion ;
and in the case of a poor Moslem they will combine
it, from motives of economy, with the circumcision
45 c 2

Things Seen in Egypt

«f the small boys of the family. In such a case
one or more little boys will be seen gaily attired
in an open carriage in the procession, while the
bride's carriage is covered entirely with a hand-
some cashmere shawl. On leaving a Christian
bride's house rose-leaves are generally showered
over her — a pretty custom, and one which it
would be well if we adopted in place of our foolish
and often dangerous rice-throwing. But the next
ceremony, which takes place at the bridegroom's
house, is one which is already falling into disuse
among the Christians and some of the better-
educated Moslems, and it is to be hoped will
shortly become entirely obsolete. It is neither
Christian nor Mohammedan, but comes straight
down from the pagan religion of ancient Egypt.
On arriving at the house, a calf or other cere-
monially clean animal is slain before the bride on
the threshold, and she has not only to see it done,
but to pass in over the running blood.

Little red and white flags are strung across the
street or over the entrance to the courtyard where
a wedding is being celebrated. If the household
is rich and has sufficient space, large tents are
erected for the reception of the male guests in
front of the house, where they are entertained
for at least two, and often for several nights. As
in all Eastern " fantasias," the hosts do nothing
themselves to entertain their guests : they leave it
all to paid musicians and dancers. During the
wedding ceremonies of both Copts and Moslems
46

Home Life

there is one night among those dedicated to
festivity on which the Egyptian keeps open house
in the fullest sense of the word. No one must be
refused hospitality. The dragomen in Cairo have
presumed on this custom to such an extent —
telling the tourists that they can get them invita-
tions to a native wedding, and then taking them
in on this night uninvited — that very just and
serious offence has been giv^en, particularly as the
manners of these intruders from the different
hotels and boarding-houses generally leave much
to be desired.

At state weddings the guests are assembled in
the largest reception-room, and then the bride in
full dress makes a sort of progress through the
assembly, largesse being scattered among them
as she passes. Tiny gold coins are specially
minted for this purpose, so light that they
resemble a shower of golden petals. The guests
are not supposed to scramble for these, but may
catch as many as they can ; and I have heard that
dresses for a state wedding used to be specially
made so as to carry away as many as possible
of these gold coins in folds and quillings, without
necessity for any appearance of eagerness or grasp-
ing on the part of the wearer.

xMohammedans, as we all know, are permitted
by their religion to have four wives at once; but
as in this case each wife can claim her own
establishment, attendants, and conjugal rights,
they find it cheaper and less trouble to divorce
47

Things Seen in Egypt

their last wife when they are inclined for a new
one, and claim credit for having only one wife
■when their religion allows them more. In any
case, the principal wife (generally the first, if the
mother of the first-born son) is not often divorced ;
she retains her rank and place, whoever else may
go and come. Every Mohammedan may divorce
his wife whenever he pleases and without any
reason given. He has to give her one-third of
the dowrj' he received with her, but that is
generally a small sum, and the fate of these dis-
carded wives is often very sad. But public opinion
has had a certain influence upon the Egyptian
Moslems of late years. I believe that it is now
considered rather bad form to divorce your wife,
unless you can give some better reason than
mere caprice, among the educated Mohammedans.
They consider it only just that they should take a
second wife when the first has no son, or grows
old, or when their profession obliges them to
make frequent journeys between two towns, and
they need a home in each. But they do not
divorce and remarry as often as they used, since
they have become more sensitive to the pressure
of European opinion on this head.

Among the Copts very early marriages are
discouraged. Some time ago, as among the
Moslems still, fifteen was considered quite a
possible age, and twelve for the girls. Sow a
man must be twenty and a girl sixteen before the
Patriarch, or Bishop, will grant the licence, with-
48

Home Life

out which no priest can celebrate a marriage. In
1895 the Patriarch issued an encyclical letter to
all his clergy, reminding them that, in accordance
with the Canons of the Church, young people
intending to marry should not only see, but mingle
with, each other, so as to know one another well
beforehand, and calling upon the priests to ascer-
tain whether there was mutual knowledge and
consent to the marriage on the part of both man
and woman before the ceremony was performed.

Divorce is very rare among the Copts, and is
only granted for adultery. The innocent party
may marry again with the permission of his or her
Bishop or the Patriarch, but the religious service
is slightly different, and the ceremony of crowning
is omitted, as it is also for a widow or widower.

The ceremonial observed at funerals is much
the same for all Egyptians, whether Christian
or Moslem. To note the differences first : The
Christians invariably bury in coffins ; in the old
days they were often of stone, but now are always
of wood. The Mohammedans only use a shroud,
or, rather, several shrouds. Since the Occupation
a case arose in which the Moslems tried to seize a
certain piece of ground belonging to a Coptic
community. It had once been used as a burial-
ground, and the case was decided in favour of the
Copts, because sundry excavations proved that all
the dead had been buried in coffins. The burial
of a corpse must take place within twenty-four
hours.

Things Seen in Egypt

When the body is being carried to the grave, in
the case of a Mohammedan, the usual confession
of faith is chanted by the hired singers all the
way. In the case of a Christian, of course, hymns
and Christian chants are sung.

The Cojits are buried in the best of the garments
which they have worn in life, and some few jewels
are usually buried with them even now, though
not to anything like the extent to which this was
done in the days of the Pharaohs. Over all the
shroud is wrapped, which is often embroidered in
gold and silver. If the dead man had been on
pilgrimage, the garments that he wore after bath-
ing in the Jordan are preserved to be worn in the
grave ; if he was not a pilgrim, he weai's over his
ordinary garments the robe which he put on in
life for receiving the Holy Communion. During
this ceremony praj'ers are offered for the departed
soul, and incense is burnt in the priest's censers.
When all is finished and the body laid in the
coffin, a sei'vice is held over it, which differs in
accord 1 nee with the past life of the deceased.
Among the Copts this is the only survival of the
ancient Egyptian ceremony of testifying for the
dead (see Chapter V., p. 13.9), which the Moslems
still observe, but which the Christians have given
up. For, as one of them wrote to me in answer
to my inquiries :

" We never summon anyone to witness in
favour of the departed soul. We believe that it
is no business of ours to interfere in the work of
52

Home Life

God, to intervene between Him and man. We
believe that the Creator of the soul know^s of its
well-doing or wickedness better than any creature
can do, and judges it righteously without needing
our testimony. But the Moslems believe that
their witness will weigh in God's judgment of the
dead, and will affect it in favour of the souls of
their brethren in faith."

The Moslems, in addition to the washing of the
corpse, have every aperture of the body plugged
with raw cotton by a fiki. Incense is also burnt
during this process, and the Koran is read aloud
by the other fokaha present. (" Fokaha " is the
plural of "fiki," literally schoolmaster, but the
literal translation would be somewhat misleading
in this connection.) The corpse is then wrapped
in six different shrouds, which must be of silk,
linen, cotton, and avooI, of various patterns.
These shrouds are taken off the body at the
grave and folded on the floor of the tomb to
form a kind of bed, on which the naked corpse
reposes.

Instead of the private service of commendatory
prayer, the body of the Moslem, if all the rites
are properly carried out, is taken to a mosque on
the way to the cemetery. The bier is set upon
the ground, and the attendants range themselves
on either side. Then the Imam comes forward,
and, standing at the head of the bier, recites five
prayers in a low tone. At the end of each prayer
he lifts up his voice, and proclaintis aloud : " God
53

Things Seen in Egypt

is the greatest of all beings." The final prayer
may be roughly translated as follows :

" O God, the deceased was Thy servant, and
the son of Thy servant. His faith was professed
in this confession. I believe that there is no
God but God, and I believe that Mohammed is
the prophet of God. O God, if he were a well-
doer in this world, reward him according to his
deeds ; if he were an evil-doer, turn thine eyes
away from his ill -deeds. Forgive his sins, pardon
him for ever, have mercy upon him, purify his
soul in the Divine light, make it clean as a white
garment washed of all stain. Let his path to
Paradise be smooth and safe and broad. Let him
be received with welcome by the hosts of heaven."

After this the Imam prostrates himself in solemn
silence for a few moments. Then he lifts himself
up and looks round about him on the attendants,
whom he addresses thus :

" Mohammedans, you are assembled here to
bear testimony either for or against this departed
soul. Say now what you know of his (or her)
vices or virtues, as God hears you and will approve
of what you may say."

The attendants all shout in one breath : " He
was the greatest good-doer in the world." (They
never give any other testimony.)

Then the procession is reformed, and the body
is borne shoulder high to the grave. When they
reach the place of burial, they chant as follows :

" Peace be upon you, O dwellers in the valley
54

Home Life

of the dead. Death has brought one more into
your abiding-place. Here is a new-comer who
shall live amongst you for ever. O grave, look
not so grim ; brighten thy face with a smile ;
receive this mute clay in a kind embrace. O
departed soul, fear not, neither despair. Angels
are sent to guide thee on thy path ; the Prophet
awaits thee at the gate of Paradise. Your faith
in Islam will save you from any condemnation or
trial. O Day of Judgment, this soul professed
the Mohammedan religion ; be merciful to him ;
try him not too hardly."

The end of the recitation is drowned in a burst
of lamentation — the shrill, prolonged outcries of
Eastern mourning. The tomb is then opened,
the corpse is taken from the bier, stripped of its
shrouds, and laid in the grave, which is then
filled in with stones if possible. Then the Imam
comes forward to provide the soul with its final
instructions for the dim and dreary shore which
it must pass. He says: "When the two angels
(see Chapter V., p. 131) come to thee and ask
thee, ' Whom dost thou Avorship .'' What is thy
religion.'' Who is thy prophet?' say thou, 'I
worship God, profess Islam, and my prophet is
Mohammed.' " Then the two angels take the
soul under their protection.

Both Copts and Moslems are alike in the
frenzied demonstrations of grief which they
encourage and indulge in on the occasion of a
death. The women dye their hands and faces

Things Seen in Egypt

with indigo, they rend their garments, and let
their hair stream loose and dishevelled. Hired
mourners add to the clamour the beat of their
tom-toms and the long shi-ill cries of wailing for
the dead. Arrangements for the burial must be
made at once, and, if the famih' is wealthy and
important, the funeral procession is as follows :

First of all come the live oxen, or other animals
which it is intended to sacrifice at the grave for
the benefit of the departed soul, or, as the
Christians would say, to be given to the poor.
Then come camels, loaded with boxes full of bread
for distribution. Next come the fokaha, or, in
the Cliristian procession, the priest, preceded by
the sexton carrying a large silver cross,* and
choir-boys carrying banners. Boys are hired in
the Moslem procession also, though they have no
longer any place in religious services, as among
the Christians. Then come the censer-bearers,
walking in line on either side of the bier, and
sending up clouds of incense. These should be
robed in white, and sprinkle perfumes also on
the procession. Before the bier come the male
relatives and friends of the deceased ; after the
bier come the wailing women and all the female
mourners. Their cries mingle with the chants
and hymns of the men in front. The procession, if
Moslem, halts at the mosque for the service before

* It is only during the last tliirty years that the Copts
have ventured to resume the practice of carrying processional
crosses at funerals.

Home Lite

described ; and if Christian, the body is sometimes
taken to a church for the first part of the funeral
service, which has special reference to the hfe of
the deceased, instead of holding it in the house.

At the grave, instead of the address to the
dead chanted by the Moslems, the Christians read
passages from the Gospel, offer prayers both for
the dead and for the living, and sing hymns, of
which a specimen verse may be given :

" Come, then, pure hands, and bear the dead
Who sleeps, or wears the mask of sleep —
Yea, come, who loved him, come to weep
And hear the ritual of the dead."

But Isis and Nephthys (called Munkar and
Nekir by the Moslems) have long been forgotten
by the Christians. They leave their dead to the
mercy and comprehension of God.

Both Copts and Moslems are subject, of course,
to the rule requiring burial within twenty-four
hours. But though they can no longer keep their
dead above ground, the Copts still keep up the
tradition of the forty days after death, during
which, in the days of old, the body was being
embalmed, and was therefore unburied (see
Gen. 1. 2, 3). They believe that the spirit of
the dead man or woman cannot enter Paradise
until the forty days are fulfilled. After the forty
days, during which they mourn and pray for the
departed, the priest is called upon to perform
the rites which will enable him to leave the
59

Things Seen in Egypt

neighbourhood of earth and enter Paradise (see
Chapter V., p. 12S).

The priest brings holy water, and sprinkles it in
every room of the house in which the man died —
on his bed, his clothes, and on the mourners.
Then he offers up the prayer of release, in which
he bids the departed soul a last farewell, and
dismisses him in peace to his celestial abode.

From the earliest times of Christianity the
custom was continued of visiting the tombs on
certain days, as in the religion of ancient Egypt,
and those Egyptians who adopted the faith of
Islam still continued the same practice. Copt
and Mohammedan alike visit their dead in the
cemeteries on the eve of their respective festivals.
Food is taken and eaten at the tombs of their
relations, though probably hardly any of them
know that this is a survival from the old pagan
religion of Egypt. As the Mohammedans have
adopted the lunar calendar of their Arab masters
for all religious purposes, it follows that their
days for these visits are no longer the same as
those of the Copts. But there is one day in the
year on which it is proper for all Egyptians to
visit their dead which has no reference to any
Christian or Moslem festival, and is probably the
survival of some ancient Egyptian custom. For
the Moslems it is a particular day in Regeb, for
the Christiajis a particular day in Babeh. The
Christian observance is probably the nearest to
the original time, as they, like their pagan fore-
60

AN ARAB VILLAGE STREET.

A street in a village of some size. Worthy of notice is the native
architecture, also the dog, seldom missing from such a scene, always a
scavenger and often fierce.

Home Life

fathers, go by the solar calendar ; whereas, Regeb
being a lunar month, there is no saying at what
time of year the commemoration of the dead may
fall. Babeh is the second month in the Egyptian
year, and corresponds now with parts of October
and November. But before we altered our
calendar it corresponded with the last days of
September and the month of October. The
E<ryptians, whether Moslem or Christian, can
give no reason now for going on this particular
day in the year to the tombs, only that it has
always been so ; nor do I know with what parti-
cular day or festival in the religion of ancient
Egypt it should be identified.

Among the wealthier and better- educated
Mohammedans in Egypt, the seclusion of the
women is not insisted upon except in Egypt. You
may see a bevy of women arrive at the Cairo
railway - station shrouded up to the eyes, and
marshalled like prisoners to their carriage by the
unfortunate nondescript whose mutilation the
system of Moslem " home " life renders necessary.
The women must not look at anyone on the
platform, far less speak to them ; they are locked
into their carriage, and conducted from the
carriage to the steamer in the same way. The
next morning the same women appear at the
public meal in the saloon, unveiled, bareheaded,
clad in the latest Parisian travelling fashion, and
supplied with the latest thing in steamer-chairs
and French novels. They will pose as Europeans
63

Things Seen in Egypt

the whole time they are away, and act with the
same freedom, but when the return steamer lands
them once more in Egypt, the same gaolers, the
same shrouds, will be waiting for them, and they
will arrive in Cairo as they went away.

If you are visiting a lady in a harem with her
friends around her, and her husband unexpectedly
comes in (generally he sends notice beforehand),
you may see the native visitors go down on their
knees on the floor, and pull their skirts over their
heads, lest the intrusive husband of the lady they
are visiting should catch a glimpse of their faces.
Indeed, a native woman of the poorest class,
wearing little else but one garment, and meeting
a European, has been known to draw her garment
right over her head, serenely conscious that she
has done the correct thing, and perfectly careless
of the fact that the greater part of her body was
thus exposed.

Now that the purchase of slaves has become
both difficult and dangerous under the British
occupation, servants have to be engaged and paid.
Almost all households — Copts, Moslems and Euro-
peans — employ some Berber servants ; many
houses are served entirely by Berberin. These
Berberin come from Nubia, a large proportion
from the neighbourhood of Korosko, and they
should, in fact, properly be called Nubians. But
it is only another instance of the rule that nothing
in Egypt is ever what it is called, and " Nubian "
has so long been used for " Negro" that to apply
64

Home Life

it to a Berber would be to give a wrong impres-
sion.

"Berberin" is simply the old Greek "barbarian,"
which they applied to all the races outside their
civilization. This accounts for the fact that
perfectly different races lying round the Egypt
of the Greek period are called Berbers by
European writers. In Egyptian Arabic they are
still called Berberin in the plural.

They are remarkable for the fact that of their
own accord they have now for more than a
century made a practice of leaving their own
country to serve for a term of years among
strangers. They save every penny, and at the
end of five years or so they invest their money
in goods for trading, and go back to their own
country. Here they live for a year or more on
the proceeds, and then, leaving behind them as
a rule some small investment in land or houses,
return for a fresh term of years. Though hardly
any of them can wi-ite or read, they maintain a
regular correspondence with their friends and
relations ; they have a sheikh or head of their
own in Cairo and other large towns, to whom
alone they consider themselves responsible, and
they look down on the Egyptians as a race of
idlers and stay-at-homes. It is only fair to add
that this contempt is reciprocated, and that ' Ya
Berber ' is as common a term of insult as ' Ya
fellah.' They command good wages, and most
of them deserve them. When a Berber boy is

65 D

Things Seen in Egypt

about twelve or fourteen he is sent clown, in
charge of one of the race who happens to be
going, to his father in Cairo. He generally
remains in his father's charge for a few months,
picking up Arabic, and is then placed in a good
European household to learn his trade. They
have a natural gift for cooking, and in a few
months will learn enough to go as general servant,
unless they have a sufficiently good connection
to aim at the higher branches of service When
a European pays his cook the wages of a marmi-
ton, it is often the case that the marmiton is an
ap]>rentice who has already paid a small premium
to the cook to learn of him. The wages probably
go as an extra perquisite to the cook, but there
is no cheating intended. The apprentice does
not consider that he is wronged so long as he
is well taught. But if you have been sufficiently
long in the country to know their ways, and
cannot afford to pay a marmiton, you merely tell
your cook so, and if he thinks you are poor and
not mean, he will accept the situation contentedly,
and you will probably find that he has his
marmiton all the same. But if you do not pay
for the marmiton, it is etiquette that you should
ignore his existence.

These Berberin were all Christians till the
destruction of their kingdoms by the Mameluke
Sultans of Egypt towards the end of the four-
teenth century. After that they gradually became
Mohammedan, but the faith of Islam sits lightly
66

■go

Home Life

upon most of them. They are Mohammedans
because their fathers were, but sunchy Christian
practices linger among them in out-of-the-way
places, and they do not trouble even to change
the names they have always borne except, oddly
enough, when they take service in a European
family. If you are curious to inquire, you may
find that your Mohammed or Abdul is known in
his own country as Junius or Thomas, or some
extraordinary name such as Gorgoda or Wuritana.
I have heard a Berber call " Basil " after his
fellow in the street, but the latter's mistress
probably knew him as Ahmed or Ali. They
almost always choose to be known by one of
those four names — Mohammed, Abdul, Ahmed,
or Ali — when they go to service. They find their
Mohammedan religion chiefly useful, I think,
because it allows them to marry two wives. They
are married as a matter of course in their own
country', either before they first go down, or, if
they are too young then, when they first return
to their country. But they do not bring their
wives down to Egypt with them, and as soon as
they can afford it they marry another in Egypt,
and migrate from one home to another. After
some years have passed they often get tired of
supporting the wife in Nubia, and for a Moham-
medan, of course, divorce is easy. They can
always many another when they go back if they
wish to do so, but meanwhile the wife of their
youth too often receives her dismissal. They are
69 D 2

Things Seen in Egypt

very fond, however, of their children. Their
language is not in the least like Arabic — I have
not been able to ascertain whether it has any
resemblance to Coptic — and they are very quick
at picking up European languages. They have
a good deal of self-respect, and if a European
should forget himself so far as to strike his
Berber servant, he may not outwardly show any
sign of anger, but a mark is henceforth set
against the man's house, and no good Berber will
serve him afterwards. He will only be able to
get those who are in disgrace among their own
people because they have taken to drink or
hashish, or some other bad habit. A good Berber
can be trusted, and will turn his hand to anything
that may be recjuired in the house. They are
not, however, so well-mannered as the Egyptians.

Outdoor servants are generally Egyptian ; the
gardener is so invariably. Most of the Pashas
still keep a large household, but where in the
days before the Occupation there would be about
a hundred hangers-on, there are now ten. Since
slaves are no longer available, and extortion can
no more be openly practised in the provinces,
" it is very good for the fellahin, but very bad
for the Bashawat," as the ex-servant of a Pasha
once said to me.

Until recently hardly any of the Moslem
Egyptians could read or write, except those belong-
ing to the trading and official classes and the
semi-Europeanized families. The Copts, on the
70

Home Life

other hand, have always had a keen desire for
education, and will permit their children to be
enrolled as members of any Christian sect or
church which will give them the coveted boon,
though most of them return afterwards to the
church of their fathers. Of late years they have
established many good schools of their own, and.
large numbers of them attend the Government
schools, where proper provision has at last been
made for them. But it took the English
authorities nearly a quarter of a century to
realize that the Copts were not only Christians,
but Egyptians, and had equal rights in the
country with their Moslem brothers.

CHAPTER III
PROVINCIAL LIFE IN EGYPT

ONE of the first things which strikes a new-
comer both in the purely native quarters of
the town and in the country villages is the
ruinous aj)pearance of many of the houses. This
is sometimes said to be due to the fact that under
Turkish government it is not safe for anyone to
appear prosperous, and there is a great deal of
truth in the remark ; but in Egypt there is another
reason as well. There is a curious superstition,
common to both Moslem and Christian Egjptians,
which forbids the repair of a house in which the
he.id of the family has died. We may infer that
at most periods of Egyptian history this super-
stition prevailed, for, except in the case of the
" heretic " King, no remains have ever been found
of a great palace or dwelling-house in Egypt,
unless it be in the rare and doubtful cases when
the royal palace has formed part of a temple.
This seems to have been the case with Queen Til,
or Taia, the ruins of whose palace may still be
seen at Thebes. But she was the mother of
72

Provincial Life in Egypt

the heretic King,* and was supposed by many
Egyptologists to be responsible for his short-lived
attempt to substitute the Sun God for the great
Ammon of Thebes. It may be presumed, there-
fore, that the Egyptian superstition, whatever it
may have been, which made it almost impossible
to build palaces or houses that would last, would
not weigh heavily on her or on her son. However
that may be, her palace, and the palace built later
by her son at Tell el Marna, are the only ancient
Egyptian dwelling-houses of which any ruins exist
in Egypt. Not only the huts of the poorer people,
but the royal palaces and houses of the nobility,
were built in perishable materials ; and an ancient
Egyptian would always have been ready to say
with the Apostle, " Here we have no continuing
city." It is said that, even at the present day in
the provinces, when the family is neither poor
enough for the usual mud shanty, which may be
pulled down and rebuilt in a few days, nor rich
enough to possess two houses, tlie head of the
house is sometimes carried outside into the field
to die in order that the house may be safe. As
far as I can gather, the ideally correct proceeding
is that, after the death, every movable article of
furniture should be carried away, and the house

* AmenSthes, or Amenhotep, who took the name of
Koniatonu, or Khiienaten. All these names vary in spelling
according to the particular Egyptologist who writes about
them. He was son to Amenhotep III., of the eighteenth
dynasty.

Things Seen in Egypt

itself left empty to its fate. But probably this
does not often happen, even in the case of the
easily replaced mud huts. As a rule, the women
and descendants remain, but no more is done to
the house, and it gradually becomes too bad to
live in. It may be remembered that the Khedive
Tewfik died unexpectedly at Helouan in a new
palace which he had just built for himself.
Directly the body had been carried away the
furniture and everything movable was torn out
of the house and piled up in the desert. The
palace was left standing emj)ty for some time, and
when it was subsequently sold to Europeans to
be used as an hotel instead of going to ruin, I
have heard that the Egyptians viewed this depar-
ture from precedent with the gravest disapproval.
The origin of this strange custom is lost in the
mists of antiquity, and no doubt, under the
present conditions of life in Egypt, it will fall
into disuse.

The chief man in an Egyptian village is the
Omdeh He combines the functions discharged
in England by the Mayor of a country town, the
squire of the village, and the Justice of the Peace.
He is generally illiterate even now, but he is
usually a strong man, as he had need to be. He
is the link and means of communication between
the village and the Government ; and some years
ago, when the opportunities for illicit gains were
great, and the small privileges attached to the
position were valued because they were new and
76

Provincial Life in Egypt

rare, the appointment was much sought after.
The whole village was split into rival factions,
each anxious to secure their own candidate. Yet
the privileges attached to the post are not large —
only the exemption of five acres of land from
taxation, and the exemption of himself and his
sons from military service. On the other hand,
he is responsible for the execution of all Govern-
ment orders and regulations ; he is at the beck
and call of the inspectors of every Department,
and he is the object of every sort of intrigue.
In one year alone, while 898 Omdehs were accused
of committing various offences, no less than 530
of tliese accusations were summarily dismissed as
false or trivial. In only 96 cases was the accusa-
tion properly substantiated. Of qualifications
which can be set down in writing, the only one
required is that the candidate for the post of
Omdeh must own ten acres of land. Many of
them are very wealthy, but are willing to serve
for the sake of the social prestige attached to
the office. There are over 3,400 of these officials
in Egypt altogether.

There is a good deal of happy communal life in
the villages. All the peasant asks is to be left in
peace to cultivate his ground, and not to have to
pay his taxes twice over. An Egyptian peasant,
far from all possible listeners, mentioned this to
me a few years after the Occupation as an almost
incredible piece of good luck which had befallen
them in consequence of the coming of the English :
77

Things Seen in Egypt

" We know what we have to pay, and we do not
have to pay it more than once. And if one comes
and desires to beat us to make us pay again, we
have only to send a telegram to the Englishman
at Assiout " (this happened to be the Assiout
district), " and he ivill not let them !"

There is in most villages a village guest-house,
which is placed at the disposal of a traveller who
may not be known to anyone in the village. I
have found it scrupulously clean, without furni-
ture, of course, except a divan ; but then the
Oriental traveller brings what he needs with him.
Food is often brought to the guest-house, but no
payment will be taken. Once off the beaten
track, you are not only not asked for backsheesh,
but I have found it difficult to get anyone to take
payment for small services rendered. Perhaps,
however, a traveller who could not speak Arabic
would find a difference. The principal village
institutions are the incubator and the pigeon-cot.
The latter is in almost all villages, the incubator
only in a proportion of them. The Egyptian
hens, having had their eggs artificially hatched
for them for some two or three thousand years,
have now lost all desire to sit, and do not attempt
it. The eggs are collected and brought to the
incubator, where they are all tested before being
accepted by the man in charge, who has after-
wards to return to their owners a fixed proportion
of chickens. The incubator is a low building, and
has a dark, narrow passage down the middle, with
78

■^'

--}- S'

Photo by inil K. K,

L.NL(IA])IXU SL GAR-CANE.

The cane is beinsj carried from a native boat lying near Elephantine
Island, Assouan. In the disf.ance is a portion of Lord Kitchener's island,
which is covered with trees.

Provincial Life in Egypt

the eggs reposing in earthen ovens on either side.
In the passcige itself are kept and fed the " cata-
keets," or the young chickens, which are killed
for market when they are four or five weeks old,
and have never seen the light of day.

The village pigeon-cot is a much more pic-
turesque object. It is like a little fortress, built
of mud, of course, but with little rounded towers,
rising above the village roofs. The villagers set
great store by their pigeons, and nothing makes
them so angry as any attempt on the part of a
European to shoot them. No one person really has
any right to give permission for pigeon-shooting,
not even the Omdeh of the village, without the
agreement of the rest of the village. Almost
all the serious difficulties between the peasants
and the British army have arisen in consequence of
the latter's ignorance or disregard of this feeling,
but of late yeai's the British authorities have
recognized the danger, and forbidden pigeon-
shooting in the army. Tourists are still apt to
ofiend in this way.

It is commonly supposed that they are valued
chiefly for the guano they produce, besides the
large quantities of young pigeons sold for food.
But it is quite possible that there are still valuable
carrier-pigeons among them. Pigeons have been
used for carrying news from time immemorial in
Egypt ; and though the way natives obtain their
news in districts where no telegraphs run is kept
a profound secret, there is no reason to suppose
8i

Things Seen in Egypt

that pigeons are not still the means of communica-
tion. Besides notices of their employment in
serious history, there exists in a quaint Arab book
professing to be history a story which is so charac-
teristic and pretty that I give a rough translation,
which, I should say, is not from the Arabic itself,
but adapted from a Fi-ench version :

" Once upon a time there was a Sultan in Egypt
whose dominions reached far be3ond Damascus
on the one hand, and to Kirwan on the other.
He himself had never been out of Egypt, and
knew nothing of any country except his own.
Many of his slaves were much better educated
than he was, and among them a Syrian girl from
Damascus was a great favourite.

" It chanced one day that their talk ran on the
subject of fruit, and the slave girl declared that
nothing in all Egypt could equal the cherries of
Damascus. The Sultan was filled with a great
desire to taste this wonderful fruit, but, according
to his slave, it could not be brought to Egypt ; to
enjoy it one must go to Damascus. The Sultan
reflected that Damascus was an important city of
his dominions which he had never visited. What
could be more plausible than a royal progress of
inspection from Cairo through Syria to that cele-
brated town ? The more he thought of the idea
the more he liked it, which was probably just
what his slave desired. But even the Sultan did
not quite like to tell his Wizier that he was going
to make a State visit to Damascus to eat cherries.
82

Provincial Life in Egypt

So he expressed concern about the state of the
northern provinces, and told the Wizier to make
preparations for a state progress through Syria to
Damascus to inquire into their affairs.

''The Wizier was filled with alarm. He hap-
pened to be aware that such an inquiry would be
very far from agreeable or convenient either to
the Governor of Damascus or any other Syrian
Governor. From his experience of his master, he
did not for a moment believe in his concern for
the provinces, but he was very much puzzled to
know what the Sultan really did want. He set
his wits and his wife to work, however, and at
length he discovered that the sole object of the
costly and inconvenient expedition was that the
Sultan might eat ripe cherries. There was no
time to be lost, and the Wizier rose to the
occasion.

" On the morrow he caused a proclamation to
be made commanding everyone in Cairo to bring
his best pigeon at once and without fail to the
court of the Wizier's house. No one dared to
disobey the order, and all the next day crowds of
men came, bringing each a pigeon in their robes.
In the court of the Wizier were a great heap of
aifas crates and a group of the swiftest riding
camels that could be obtained all ready for a
journey. As fast as the pigeons were received they
were packed in the crates, and by nightfall all
were full. Then in the quiet starlight the swift
camels stole silently away into the desert, each bear-
83

Things Seen in Egypt

ing two crates full of pigeons to a destination which
only the Wizier and the sheikh of the camels knew.

" Weeks passed on^ and still the Wizier appeared
to be immersed in all the costly preparations
necessary for the Sultan's royal progress through
distant lands, but fresh delays were ever forth-
coming, and every morning at daybreak the
Wizier looked anxiously towards the east from his
housetop. At length one morning he beheld, as
it were, a little cloud in the sky, and soon the air
was filled with the fluttering wings of homing
pigeons. All ciay long the crowd poured into the
court, each one bringing his own bird for its
burden to be detached and to claim the promised
reward. For under each wing of all the weary
birds was a ripe cherry from Damascus !

" All day the slaves piled high the ruddy fruit
on round brass trays under the eye of the Wizier,
and towards sunset a brilliant procession went uj>
to the royal palace and laid the Wizier' s present
of fresh cherries before the Sultan. His Majesty
was delighted, and withdrew with the laden
salvers into his harem, while the Wizier went
home to await the course of events. At the end
of two days the Sultan sent to say that he was not
very well, and all the preparations for a journey
must be stopped. He was not going to Damascus,"

Pariah dogs are still numerous in all the villages,

though they have almost become extinct in Cairo

and Alexandria, where for ^ome time they have

been regularly poisoned at intervals by the

> o

J= J3

*-*

t«

_-a

—

"v-^

t:<i

^ "bo

Provincial Life in Egypt

Government, They may be useful as scavengers,
but they are almost an unmitigated nuisance in
every other respect, and render hideous the
otherwise brilliant and beautiful nights of Egypt
in the neighbourhood of all human habitations.
They have shared in the general prosperity of
Egypt, and are no longer mangy, shrinking curs ;
many of them are fine strong animals with good
coats. In the neighbourhood of Erment there is
quite a distinct and very handsome breed, almost
black in colour, and perfectlj' unlike in form to
the ordinary pariah. An Ermenti puppy is a
charming animal, like a black baby bear ; but he
Invariably grows up too savage to be a safe pet, as
more than one Englishman has discovered.

Cows are comparatively rare — successive out-
breaks of cattle-plague destroyed the ancient
breed of Egyptian cattle long ago. Buffaloes, of
course, are common everywhere — huge ungainly
creatures easily guided by a small Egyptian child,
except when they take to the water. I have seen
a little girl on the bank of the river plaintively
entreating her black charges to return to dry
ground, like a hen calling to her ducklings ; and I
once saw a young buffalo swim right across a full
Nile from Cairo to Gezireh, where the current is
very strong.

Camels are never seen on the monuments, and

some scholars have inferred from this that they

were not known in Egypt till comparatively late.

It seems more probable, however, that the

Things Seen in Egypt

Egyptians, like most Eastern nations, divided
animals into clean and unclean, and that only the
ceremonially " clean " were represented on the
temple walls, or made mention of»in the service of
the gods.

It is difficult to realize how very modern are the
two things which are now so closely associated with
Eastern life — coffee and tobacco. The last, indeed,
is not allowed by one sect of Mohammedans,
because they say that if Mohammed had known of
it he would have forbidden it. But coffee is
everywhere, though it was unknown in Egypt till
it was introduced by a travelling merchant in the
Middle Ages. Since the English occupied Egypt
tea has grown in favour, particularly among the
Berberin servants, but cofiee is still the first
offering of hospitality.

Everywhere in the provinces the stranger will
receive a courteous invitation to rest and drink
coffee from someone in the village which he
passes. In very poor houses they drink the coffee
sugarless themselves, but if the traveller accepts
the invitation and seats himself on the clay divan
outside the hut to await the cofl'ee, he will perceive
a small boy start off on receipt of a whispered
order, and return breathless with a handful of
white loaf-sugar, which he presses silently into the
hand of the host. In the country there is still a
good deal of the ancient Egyptian freedom
accorded to women even among the Moslems.
The peasants are almost always well-mannered and
88

Provincial Life in Egypt

make admirable listeners, but long centuries of
oppression have taught them to maintain a pro-
found reserve concerning their own opinions and
affairs, unless they are alone with their own people,
or with someone whom years of experience have
taught them that they may trust.

Very few even of the Moslems, much less the
Christians, will venture to say anything that might
seem like praise of the English rule, to which they
know perfectly well that they owe all their
present prosperity. They do not know when it
may come to an end, and they may be left to
suffer for ill-guarded expressions of satisfaction
with foreign interference. It may be matter of
common knowledge that a high oriental official
extorts bribes regularly from everyone beneath
hiin in the department ; but it will be found quite
impossible to persuade any of the victims to go
and give evidence against him in a court of justice.
The young fellows in the Government schools are
no doubt sincere in their clamour for self-
government, and really believe that they could
bring about an ideal state of things ; the father of
a family hastens to express his fervent acquiescence
in the new ideas, and secretly prays Allah to avert
such a calamity. They have a strong feeling that
they can keep on the right side of Providence, so
to speak, by abusing loudly that for which they
are most thankful ; as a lad will spit on a coin,
which he is delighted to receive, "for luck." 1
was once present at one of those sad burials of an
91 E

Things Seen in Egypt

Englishman who had " gone under," and who had
died penniless and unknown in Cairo, to be buried
by the Consulate (i.e., as a pauper). There was no
one but the clergyman and myself at the funeral,
and the strength of the hired men was found
insufficient to lower the coffin into the gi*ave. At
length my driver — of an ordinary street carriage —
was called in from outside the cemetery and asked
to help. He came readily enough, but as he
lowered the coffin he uttered a curse upon the
soul of the departed. No one took any notice ; it
was quite obvious that he had no feeling of
personal malice or ill will, and if he had known
that we understood, he would probably have
taken care to make his remark inaudible. He
was merely protecting himself by the utterance of
a formula from the ill-luck which might otherwise
befall him in consequence of his help given to a
dead Christian.

They are quite ready to laugh at and critici/.e
their rulers, both Moslem and English, but in the
former case they are careful to do so under the
form of a puppet show, or story with fictitious
names. The habit of giving nicknames to those
set over them has been characteristic of the
Egyptians certainly since Diocletian was known
as the Dragon, and probably for centuries before
that. They are also very fond of story-telling
pure and simple, and will sit long in the moonlight
listening with hearty appreciation to the village
story-teller.

O 3

•.A

Provincial Life in Egypt

Farming operations are carried on almost all the
year round, except for a few weeks in the districts
where basin irrigation is still the rule. There is
always some crop to be attended to, either in or
out of the ground. Quite the most important of
these are the date-palms, now again increasing in
number since we decreed the repeal of the
iniquitous laws which taxed them almost out of
existence under Turkish rule. Every part of a
palm-tree is useful : the trunk makes rafters for
the houses; the ribs of the leaves, often 15 to
20 feet long, make the affass crates used for
almost every purpose by the natives ; the leaflets
make baskets, and the fruit supplies food. The
palm-trees are male and female, and need human
agency for their fertilization.

There is a quaint story in Herodotus which he

gives as illustrating the credulity and foolishness

of the Egyptians. At a certain time of the year,

he says, the inhabitants of each district assemble

jand cut certain branches from selected palms.

1 These they cany in procession, chanting hymns

jand invocations, and fix them in other palm-trees,

and they declare, says Herodotus scornfully, that

if this were not done the palms would not bear

fruit ! In which, we need hardly say, they were

Iperfectly right. The Egyptian dates are not of

very good quality, but they are beautiful to look

tat in the time of harvest, with their great bunches

of red or yellow fruit. It also makes a difference

Ito them which way they are planted, and in trans-

95 E 2

Things Seen in Egypt

planting young trees great care has to be taken.
An Englishman, imported direct from Kew,
found fault with his Egyptian labourers for the
time they took over transplanting some palms,
and in superintending, desired the young tree to
be set as he thought the foliage looked best. The
natives objected, and said that each tree must be
set with one particular side of the trunk to the
south, or they would never thrive. The English-
man wanted to know the reason, but they could
not tell him, though they themselves seemed to
know by instinct which way each tree must go.
The Englishman — who told me this story himself
— inquired into the matter, and found that they
were perfectly right : the " heart " of the tree was
not in the middle of the trunk, but always to
one side.

In the winter the palm groves do not look at
all at their best. The leaves have been cut for
atfass-making, and the result is that till the young
leaves have grown again they look like nothing so
much as a set of feather dusters that have lost
nearly all their feathers.

Sugar-cane is grown largely, and there are a
certain number of sugar factories at work, but
they are not very profitable. When it is ripe,
every little waysiile stall has its bundle of rods
for sale. The natives eat great quantities of it,
crushing the cane in their strong white teeth and
sucking the raw juice.

Cotton was grown and woven in Egypt from
96

Stereo Copyright, Ciida-u-j.d c- i'. London C~ Xow Yor/:.

HOW THE MAILS ARE CARRIED IX THE DESERT.

Provincial Life in Egypt

the earliest times, but, like many other things, it
disappeared so entirely in the general wreck of
the country that it was supposed to be a new
idea when it was reintroduced early in the
present century. Now it covers a great part of
the country, so much so that, with his usual lack
of foresight, the prosperous Egyj^tian peasant
suffered from actual scarcity of food in some
districts a few years ago. He had planted all
possible land with cotton, and made no provision
for obtaining corn from anywhere else, and in
consequence corn went up to such a price that it
was extremely difficult for the poorer people to
obtain any at all. Some of the Egyptian cotton
is almost like silk ; in one district it is made into
" silk " and sold as such. It is a very pretty
crop — low green bushes, something like raspberry-
canes, with large yellow flowers. At certain
times in the year you see almost every railway-
station in Egy^it heaped with the enormous bales,
waiting to be exported. At another time their
place is taken by sacks of onions, which are also
exported in large quantities. The Egyptian
knows much more than is commonly supposed
about agriculture, and on the rare occasions when
he offers advice, it is not wise for the European to
disregard it. The prettiest crop is undoubtedly
the clover, or berseem. It takes the place of
grass meadows in other countries, and all the
animals are fed on it as long as it can be had.
The sheep and cattle are brought into the clover-
99

Things Seen in Egypt

field, and tethered in a line to eat their portion
for the day, while the children Avho are left to
look after them make nests for themselves among
the clover, like brightly-coloured birds. When
the whole field has been eaten down, it is
generally quite ready for them to go back and
begin again.

Every cabman drives about with his horse's
daily allowance of berseem under his feet, and
whenever he has to wait he jumps down and
proceeds to feed his horses by hand. A private
carriage, unless the owner is in a high position,
generally uses one horse ; a street carriage has
always a pair. But horses are not common outside
the larsje towns. The country gentleman gener-
ally rides an ass or a mule, the carrier in the
desert a camel ; while oxen and buffaloes are
generally used for agricultural purposes, though
the camel carries loads everywhere, and may even
be seen yoked to a native plough.

Fishing is a very considerable native industry
on the large lakes of Egypt, particularly on Lake
Menzaleh, where about a thousand boats are
employed in the fisheries. These fisheries were
farmed out under the old system of Turkish rule,
and so many other matters pressed for immediate
attention that it was not until 1902 that the
grievances of the native fisherman were redressed
and the old evil system finally abolished. Now
anyone can take out a licence for his boat, and if
he is too poor to possess a boat, he is permitted

lOO

Lottdo)i &* New W
A lilSUAHIX IUt31E IN THE ARABIAN DESERT,

Notice the way the baby is carried.

Provincial Life in Egypt

to catch fish from the shore with a net without
paying any tax. He is also permitted to sell his
fish to anyone and at any place he pleases.
Within three years of these reforms being carried
out the average earnings of the fisherman in a
month had quadrupled, and seventy new boats
had been launched on one lake alone. But a
curious result followed : the price of fish almost
doubled in the great towns of Egypt. The
fishermen, being now at liberty to sell their fish
when and where they please, refuse to sell at all
except at a fair price. Fish left on their hands
they either send away themselves to some market
where they know it will command a good price,
or salt it down. In the same way, when the
octroi duties were abolished in Cairo and Alex-
andria, we all hoped that the price of food would
go down. To our surprise, it rose considerably
and directly. The peasant who brought in his
poultry and food-stuffs under the old regime could
not afford to take them back and pay again the
next day on the same goods, or as often as he
brought them into town, so he sold them the
first day for what he could get. But under the
present regime, if he does not obtain what he
thinks a fair price for his turkeys and other live
produce, he just marches them back again, and
brings them some other day when there is more
demand. Even green -stuffs and fruit can some-
times be kept a day ; in any case, he is sure of
obtaining now a fair reward for his labour. It is
103

Things Seen in Egypt

seldom that the best-intentioned reforms bring
such an immediate and substantial increase of
property to the people whom it is proposed to
benefit.

Life on these lakes is still very much what it
was in the days of the Pharaohs, as represented
on the walls of the tomb chambers. Fowling is
practised still, though shooting will probably take
its place in time. The lakes are something like
the Norfolk Broads on a very large scale. Lake
Menzaleh will probably become every year more
and more a resort for European sportsmen who
can speak Arabic. A beautiful account of the
northern lakes appeared in the Cornhill a few
years ago, written by Mr. Hogarth, if I remember
rightly. The lake in the Fayoum, which the tourists
know best, is not so good either for sport or fishing.

A good deal of pottery is made in the southern
provinces, and floated down the. river for sale and
export. The principal articles are zeyrs and
goollas, the large jars used for holding water, and
the smaller ones for drinking It is wonderful
to watch the natives loading a cargo-boat with
these fragile porous jars, They are thrown from
hand to hand as quickly as possible, and caught
unerringly.

Towards sunset the flocks and herds stream
back to their village in charge of the herdsmen,
often a small child or an old man, who walks
along spinning wool on a primitive arrangement.
The women have, many of them, been at work all
104

Provincial Life in Egypt

day, but they have still their water to fetch from
the river or the nearest canal. A group of these
slight, erect figures in their trailing garments, each
with an enormous jar poised upon her head, making
their way to the water through the sunset glow, is
one of the most picture'<que sights in Egypt.

Among the picturesque objects to be seen in
the provinces are the domed white tombs outside
the villages or by the roadside. The earliest of
these cover the bones of long-forgotten Christians,
but for some centuries it has been customary to
bury Mohammedan "saints " in this way. In the
case of a religious beggar — one who has chosen
a certain spot on which he sits all day in rags
chanting appeals to Allah, and to the public in
His name — it has been customary to bury him
on the same spot which he hallowed by his
presence in life. When this happened to be
among the palms, just at the entrance to a village,
the result was a picturesque object which harmed
no one ; but as the towns spread and grew,
these tombs which, once built, were of course
inviolable, became a very great inconvenience and
obstruction to traffic. Those absolutely in Cairo
streets have been, under British rule, restored
and beautified till they are at least sightly and
sanitary, if unsuited to the middle of a crowded
street. But while thus respecting accomplished
facts and acquired rights, orders were given that
no more of these burials were to be permitted in
the public roads.

105

Things Seen in Egypt

There was a certain fakir who had always sat in
the entrance of one of the gates of Alexandria,
through which the traffic yearly became greater.
He was a very holy man, and no one ventured to
interfere with hivn as he sat chanting his appeals
and invocations all day. But he was very old, and
the English head of the police was on the watch.
One day it was reported to him that the fakir
was dead, and that they were making preparations
to inter him on the spot. Colonel H. sent down
a courteous intimation that it could not be per-
mitted. The disciples of the fakir, with humblest
salaams, represented that they were powerless in
the matter ; th;it the dead body of the holy one
refused to allow itself to be carried from the
spot ; and that even if it were possible for them to.
risk the anger of the dead, they were powerless
to remove the body.

Colonel H. sent back word that he entirely
sympathized, and quite understood that the holy
one refused to be carried from his place without
due honour and ceremony — he was even now
making preparations to do this — and in half an
hour he and a guard of honour equal to the
occasion would be there, and would themselves
bear the holy dead to whatever cemetery they
might select for his burial. And before the
mourners could determine what answer to make
to this astonishing proposal, the jingle of arms
was heard, and a goodly force of gens d'armes had
enconijiassed them, bringing a bier as evidence
106

5 Q..)i!

Provincial Life in Egypt

of their good faith. In a ti-ice, but with all due
ceremony, the fakir's body was borne away, and
the mourning crowd decided to follow.

Sacred trees still exist, and generally mark the
site of some holy grave, often of a Christian
martyr whom the present-day Egyptian regards
as a holy Moslem. There is a very ancient sacred
tree on the Island of Rhoda, which may be visited
at the same time as the Kilometer there, though it
is some way to the north. Its limbs lie almost on
the ground, and are covered with the nails and
bits of coloured rag driven in by the suppliants
to remind the saint of their prayer. It is not a
very common tree ; the natives call it " nobk," or
a name which sounds as near to this combination
of letters as mav be. I have seen the tree planted
also near the Christian cemeteries of Deronka,
beyond Assiout. Under the sacred tree of Rhoda
no vestige of a tomb remains, but the natives say
that a very holy woman lies there " from a long,
long time ago."

Dolls in some places are made most ingeniously
of clay, moulded round a stick and dried. The
hair and features are all supplied, and the aroosa
— the name for a doll is the same as that for a
bride — is dressed in bright cotton garments.
Little toys, also, are made of clay, and sold for
half a farthing, but the Egyptian child is not at
all dependant on toys, and will amuse himself for
hours quite contentedly. Lately they have taken
to playing what they think is football all over the
109

Things Seen in Egypt

country, and are most energetic over it, in spite
of their fluttering skirts.

Babies are carried astride on their mothers'
shoulders in a most picturesque fashion. From
this perch they gaze at you with those inscrutable
eyes which seem to be the inheritance of even
the youngest Eg)'ptian, and will generally respond
to your advances with grave dignity. But it is
wise to be careful in this respect, for there is still
some fear of the evil eye among the rural
population. Charms to protect the little one may
generally be seen attached to the front lock of
hair or suspended round the neck.

Various gold coins are often strung to the neck-
lace of the peasant woman. Many of the Moham-
medans still respect the law of their prophet
against "usury," which they interpret to mean
any form of interest, and this means that they
must either hoard their money or buy jewels or
some thing that does not bear interest. This was
the unforeseen factor in the great land gamble
which ruined so many people in Cairo a year or
two ago. The Mohanmiedans, who had grown
rich under the Occupation, did not know what
to do with their money. It became the fashion
among them to desire a house and garden like
those the English were building everywhere out-
side Cairo, and they bought all they could get
without any regard to tlie price. It was nothing
to them that the sum tliey paid represented a
rental of £ 1,000 to £2,000 a year, and seeing
no

Provincial Life in Egypt

that a house which had cost at the most £3,000
or £4,000 to build could be sold for anything
from £12,000 to £30,000, the European builders
and speculators hastened to acquire all the land
they could get, in order to build and sell more
houses at the same fabulous rates, and also flats
for the dispossessed Europeans who had sold their
villas. Then Lord Cromer resigned, and the
reaction set in. The natives did not know what
might happen next, and the slight check which
in such a state of things is enough to bring about
a collapse was given with fatal effect at the time,
though no doubt with advantage to the future of
the country.

Most of the Mohammedans have doubtless
returned to their primitive practice of burying
their money in the ground. One man alone was
known to have £80,000 in gold stored in this way
a year or two ago. A Moslem in the provinces
who was seriously ill sent for an English doctor
from Cairo. It was a long way, and the fee agreed
upon was £50. After the doctor had prescribed
for his patient, and was waiting to return to Cairo,
there was a good deal of fussing in and out, and
at length one of the male relatives came and
apologized to the doctor for the delay in pro-
ducing his fee. The fact was, he explained, that
the son, who had charge of the key of the shed
in the garden under which the money was buried,
had gone out, and no one could get at the store
till he came back again.

Ill

Things Seen in Egypt

In March, 1901, the British authorities in Cairo
established the system of Post-Office Savings Banks.
The new security was readily taken advantage of
by the Christians, but the Mohammedans were at
first suspicious, and even when they realized that
this was no trap on the part of the Government,
but a really safe place of deposit for their savings,
there was still the ditHculty that they were offered
interest on their money. But the convenience of
so safe a place of deposit induced them to find a
way of escape from infringing the law of the
Koran. They could refuse to receive the interest ;
and to their honour be it recorded that they did
so. In the first two years that savings banks
existed no less than 3,195 Moslem depositors
refused on religious grounds to receive any interest
on their money.

This being the case, the authorities consulted
the Grand Mufti and other lights of Islam, and a
law was framed and piil)lished with their sanction
which was intended to remove these conscientious
objections. It certainly had some effect, for the
next year, out of nearly 30,000 depositors, about
13,000 were Moslems, and of these, 94 were
described as "Sheikh " or " Ulema."

All Egyptians, both Copt and Moslem, com-
pare favourably with ourselves in the matter of
sobriety. It is one of the ways in which we
should do well to imitate them. Drunkenness
exists, of course, but I have mingled freely with
the poorer classes of both religions for many

112

Stereo Copyyi.ilit, Ciidouvod C~ C. y<::u )\>r^.

THK .HOST BEAUTIFUL COLONNADE IN ECiVPT.

This temple is at Thebes. The great altar of sacrifice used to stand in
this court. Most of the Egyptian temples have been used as Christian
churches by the early Christians. Theie is an altar in this lemple with
Coptic crosses.

Provincial Life in Egypt

years, and though one permits and the other
forbids the use of intoxicating liquors, I have
never seen either a Christian or a Mohammedan
Egyptian drunk. Berbers sin much more fre-
quently in this respect ; I cannot say the same of
them.

Concerning that form of morality which more
than anything else determines the character and
development of a nation, the cleavage between
the two religions is wide and deep. I do not
wish to enlarge upon this matter, but I think it
fair to the Christian Egyptians to put one fact on
record concerning them. To quote the words of
an Englishman who has lived for years among
them, both in Cairo and in some of the larger
provincial towns ; " It should not be forgotten
that there is not a Coptic woman of public bad
character in all Egypt."

CHAPTER IV

THE WORKADAY WORLD

IN ancient times Egypt was celebrated for its
beautiful workmanship in many ways. Some
of these arts and crafts gradually decayed
under the blight of the Moslem dominion, and
many were finally and violently destroyed, so far as
Egypt was concerned, at the time of the Turkish
conquest in 1517, when even the Moslem eulo-
gists of the Sultan admit that he ruined more
than fifty different Egyptian industries. Still,
th re is a certain amount of beautiful work done
in Egypt even now, and there is some hope of a
revival in this direction. In the old days, the
most beautiful painting and illuminating was
done in Egypt, exquisite glass work, gold and
metal work, and enamelling ; beautiful tiles were
made, there was exquisite weaving and embroidery,
and many of these arts were encouraged by some
of their Moslem rulers. Almost all the specimens
which have come down to us were preserved
because they had been wrought for the service
of the mosques, like the beautiful metal work,
the glass lamps and the illuminated Korans,
ii6

The Workaday World

which may be seen in the Arab museum. But
though there are still many native industries,
there are only three left of the beautiful handi-
crafts which flourished in pre-Mohammedan days.
These are the brass work, the gold and silver
embroidery on net or cloth, and the wood work.
In the brass bazaar you may still see a poorly clad
and apparently uneducated man sit down before
a plain circle of brass, take a reed pen, and
without further instrument of any sort proceed
to draw the most intricate patterns and circles,
which he next proceeds to hammer out with a
chisel. In the embroidery stalls another man
will be stitching down the gold and silver on the
finest broadcloth, which you used to be able to
buy here in all the exquisite pale colours loved
of the time Egyptian, now, alas ! rarely seen.
Sometimes one feels as if the modern Egyptians
had a genius for copying the wrong things. They
copy our bad manners, our hideous (and, for their
climate, unwholesome) clothes, our machine-made
furniture and ugly patterns ; but our truthfulness,
punctuality and honesty they seem to have no
use for.

The wood work has been less fortunate, per-
haps, than the metal work and embroidery, owing
to the terrible philistinism of the European tourist.
Nothing will content him but that he must have what
he fondly calls the genuine old " moosharabieh,"
and the result is that all the beautiful old lattice
work has been torn out of the native houses and
117 F

Things Seen in Egypt

from the fronts of the once picturesque streets,
and made up into shapes for which it was never
designed, and put to uses for which it was never
intended ; and meanwhile the genuine living
industry was almost starved out of existence.
Mere age can have no possible meaning in such
a connection ; it is not even as if the tourists
cared to know the history and meaning of the
things they so recklessly cause to be destroyed.
However, for some years now there has been a
steady demand for new ard good work of this
kind, so there is no more fear of this fine handi-
craft dying out.

The origin of its present name, "moosharabieh"
(spelt in many different ways), lies in the fact
that these ornamental lattices were made for
screening the windows of Moslem and the bal-
conies of Christian houses. They effectually
prevented any passer-by from seeing into the
rooms, but did not entirely prevent the ladies
from seeing out. It was the custom to make
small recesses in the screen or lattice, just large
enough to hold a goolla or porous jar of water.
The wind — of which there is always plenty in
Egypt — blew through the lattice on the porous
jar, making the water delightfully cool. These
recesses were called "shurabieh," or the "place
of drinking," and the name was gradually applied
to the whole lattice. What "moosh" means in this
connection I know not, but "moosh " is the common
form of the negative — e.g., "moosh owes," "do 7iut
ii8

Pliotohy ll'ilUi. Roie. Chester.

TUP: INTKRIOR OF yiEKX NEFKRTARl's TOMB.

The ceiling of this tomb is painted a dark blue and covered with golden
stars, repress niing night.

The Workaday World

want." It happens that the native name for a
carriage of any kind is "arabia," and it also hap-
pened that the name of the military adventurer
whose rebellion brought the English into Egypt
was Arabi. One of the tourists who came out
soon after the revolt which was followed by the
British occupation entangled himself delightfully
in this verbal snare. It was told with glee in
Cairo that^ on his return to England, he had given
a lecture on the political state of affairs in Egypt,
in the course of which he made the following
statement to his audience : " Egypt is now divided
into two great parties, one desiring reform under
the patriot Arabi, and one preferring things to
remain as they are. The people of the first party
are called ' Arabias' ; those of the second party are
known as 'moosh Arabias.' "

In the older forms of this moosharabia work
the wood is cut in the form of large, carved,
wooden beads, and strung on wire. In the newer
work the uprights are generally in one piece, and
the rest of the pattern filled in by the joining of
small pieces. An old panel or two is often worked
into a new screen, that it may be sold as a genuine
"antika." It should be mentioned, however,
that the ordinary uneducated native has not the
least intention to cheat or lie when he assures
the indignant tourist that a piece of palpably
modern work is a beautiful antika. He simply
cannot understand the Western love for mere age,
and has adopted the word "antique" into his
121 F 2

Things Seen in Egypt

language with a meaning of his own. He
observed that whenever a Frangi admired any-
thing very much he called it an antique. To
him, therefore, it was evident that the word
which he heard them repeat so often, and apply
to so many different things, must mean anything
extremely precious, and he promptly used it in
that sense. When a very beautiful alabaster
reredos was presented to the English church in
Cairo, fresh from the carver's hands, the natives
all spoke of the wonderful "antika" which had
arrived.

Beside the lattice work, beautiful carving and
inlaying is done in walnut and other woods. Use
is often made now of a beautiful red wood which
has been brought down of late years from the
Soudan, but this is generally to be met with in
the Government technical schools, where utility is
aimed at, and no beautiful work is done for its
own sake. The inlaying is very costly, and a
small table in the best work may cost as much
as £80.

Other picturesque but coarser handicrafts are
to be found in many places. In the dim " Hag
bazaar " they cover sail and tent cloth with curious
patterns cut out in red and blue cotton, and sewn
on to the cloth in a sort of applique. Panels of
these are now specially made to sell to the tourists.
They are generally ingenious copies of some scene
on the monuments. In the shoe bazaar long
lines of the red and yellow slippers light up the

122

The Workaday World

scene with vivid colour. They are very fond of
red leather, and use it for native saddles and
bags and the covers of trays.

The longer one lives in the East, the better one
learns to understand the Bible, and an incident of
daily life will often throw an unexpected light
upon the text. The mention of red leather
reminds me of such an incident. In the story
of Joseph the chief baker tells him a dream
which he is to interpret, and, according to our
translation, he says : " I had three white baskets
on my head, and the birds did eat them out of
the basket upon my head." In the Revised
Version the passage is translated, " baskets of
white bread." Either statement appears intel-
ligible enough, but neither is correct, as I learned
from a gentleman whose long residence in the
East and familiarity with Oriental tongues had
specially qualified him to give an opinion. The
expression translated "white baskets" is not
Hebrew at all ; it is an old Egyptian word left
untranslated in the original, and it is still in use
among the present Egyptians, but it signifies " red
leather." This was for some time a puzzle to the
scholar in question, as he could not see what con-
nection red leather could have with the passage
in Genesis. Now, the kitchen establishment of a
rich Egyptian is often separated from the house
itself. When the meal is ready it is arranged in
round, flat trays or baskets, covered with more or
less handsome covers of embroidered material, and
123

Things Seen in Egypt

carried on the heads of the kitchen attendants to
the dining-room. In Arabic the ordinary word for
a basket is " zambil," for a tray " sonnea." But,
passing by one of these establishments one day,
this gentleman observed that the baskets were
particularly handsome, and entirely covered with
red leather. He stopped and asked the cook
what was the name of these baskets. " Those r"
said the cook. " Those are 'sellah hurl.' " It was
the identical expression used in Genesis, and the
mystery was explained.

Very few visitors seem to know the cotton
bazaar in Cairo, yet it is well worth a visit, not
only because it is a very picturesque, if insanitary,
place, but because it is one of the few almost
perfect examples left in Cairo of a khan for
travellers. In just such a place as this our Saviour
must have been born at Bethlehem. There is
the court for the animals, all driven in and herded
here for the night in the days long ago, when
this khan was used for its original purpose, and
all round are deep arched recesses, with stone
platforms in front of them, where the herdsmen
and servants in charge of the animals slept.
Above this and all round it, with an awning or
light roof to the court, ran the rooms of the inn
proper looking into the court. The only entrance
to the place is through a low, narrow, arched way,
which leads from the court, under the inn, to the
street. Now the arched recesses are filled with
brightly coloured cottons — stripes for the men
124

THK DESKRTKl) TE.MPLK AT LL'.XOK.

The Workaday World

only, other patterns for the women. I discovered
once that my native servants were rather scan-
dalized because I had bought myself a dress of
the striped cotton which should only be worn by
men. On the platforms sit the merchants with
their scribes. It was in such a recess as this that
Joseph and Mary had to take refuge " because
there was no room for them in the inn."

Behind the cotton bazaar the weavers of silk
ends to cotton cloths may be seen at their work.
There are many qualities of Egyptian silks ; the
best is very expensive, but the tourists generally
buy a quality which, though half cotton, has the
merit of washing well and looking well to the last.
It is always woven in fine stripes, and generally in
beautiful colours. The true Egyptian, whether
Copt or Moslem, has a fine sense for beautiful
colour; though in these days, since he has
abandoned his own cool and clean garments of
silk and cotton for our stove-pipe abominations in
cheap woollens, which attract dirt and infection of
every kind, he has very little chance of showing
it. It is the mongrel population of Turk, Arab,
Negro, and Berber which loves gaudy colours and
aniline dyes.

Mat-making is also carried on in Cairo, though
the finer kinds of mats come from the provinces,
where also most of the pottery is made. The red
and black glazed pottery which is to be bought
in the Cairo bazaars comes from Assiout.

In all the native bazaars quite tiny boys may
127

Things Seen in Egypt

be seen hard at work and very proud of them-
selves. They are brought up to their fathers'
trades at a very early age in the tiny raised open
shops along the different bazaars.

One of the oldest industries in Egypt is the
working of tin. They will extemporize a forge on
the bare ground at almost any moment to tin the
saucepans of the household, or mend anything that
may be brought to them. One striking bit of
evidence for the Egyptian origin at some long
past time of the European gipsies is the fact that
Zingari, one of their many names, is the old
Egyptian word for a tinsmith or tinker, still in
common use.

The water-carriers are a very familiar sight in
Cairo, though the modem water-carts have driven
them from the principal streets. They fetch the
water from the Nile to the houses where the
women of the family are too well off to work in
the fields, or go down with their jars to the river,
and they still water some small streets where the
carts cannot go. A favourite form of charity with
the well-to-do natives is to set a zeyr outside his
house for the benefit of the thirsty passers-by, and
this he pays a water-carrier to keep full regularly.
The water-sellers, too, are often hired by some rich
man to dispense water gratuitously to everyone
for the day, generally some day of feast. The
seller carries his supply in a zeyr upon his back,
with a branch of green leaves by way of stopper.
He has two brass cups which he clinks together to
128

STATIES OF RAMSES II. AT lA X'DR.

The Workaday World

attract attention. He generally carries a goolla
also, and it is curious to watch the demeanour of
one of these men in a crowd on an occasion when
he has received a certain sum for the day, since he
never asks or waits for money. But the observer
will notice that if he thinks the man who asks
him for water will give him a tiny coin for himself
he offers the goolla ; if it is a child or a poor person,
he offers the brass cup. I watched one of these
men moving about for some time one day, and
once or twice when a well-dressed man asked him
for water he offered the brass cup instead of the
goolla. I thought to myself that surely these men
will put the para (a fortieth part of twopence-half-
penny) into the bowl for him. But the water-
seller never made a mistake in his prognostication.

The lemonade or sherbet seller is an even more
picturesque sight ; his jar is of glass and highly
ornamented, and he wears a large and gaily
patterned red handkei-chief by way of apron.
There are also liquorice-water sellers, who generally
wheel their store upon a hand-cart, and sweetmeat
sellers of every kind, who carry an affass stand for
their round tray.

Affass-making is an industry practised all over
Egypt from the earliest ages. The first letter of
the word is one of those tiresome sounds which no
one European letter can represent, so some call it
"affass," and some "gaffas" (hard g), and some
"kaffass." The material used is the long rib of a
date-palm leaf when all the leaflets and thorns have
131

Things Seen in Egypt

been removed, and these are turned to endless uses.
An afFass generally means a strong rough crate
made of these palm-leaf ribs, but they also make
divans, bedsteads, circular tray stands, and many
other things. At a certain time of the year as
many palm-leaves as the tree will spare are cut for
aftass-making. This harvest leaves the palm a
denuded and ungainly object, and spoils the
appearance of the country very much, but it is too
valuable to forgo.

Before the English occupied the country, every
possible use of the palm-tree was made an excuse
for a different tax, and the tax on the tree itself
was so heavy that, rather than pay it year by year
while the tree was growing up, they rooted up the
young seedlings. Now the country is once more
full of palm-trees in every stage of growth.

Boat-building, of course, has always been carried
on in Egypt, and visitors to the Museum in Cairo
should not fail to notice the models of various
ancient Egyptian boats taken from the tombs.
Navigation is said to employ more hands in Egypt
than any other calling except agriculture, but of
late years com})laints have been made that it is very
difficult to obtain sailors on the Nile, and owing
to the construction of enormous barrages without
any efficient provision for dredging or keeping the
water-way open, navigation becomes more difficult
every year. The sailors are all Egyptian or
Berberin, mostly the former. The Arab prefers
his " ship of the desert," and does not embark
132

A NILE BOAT UNDER FILL SAIL.

The lofty lateen sails catch all the air there is, even when i\nder the
lee of the high river-banks.

The Workaday World

on water if he can help it. The long-drawn
chants of the sailors are curious, though hardly
musical from our point of view. The Egyptian,
however, considers our point of view barbarous,
our music unrestful noise, and much prefers his
own half-tones and long - sustained notes. In
the matter of keeping time they are certainly
wonderful.

Building and stone-cutting are also flourishing
trades, though the beautiful stone carving lavished
on every church — never on mere houses — ^in the
early centuries of Egyptian Christianity was long
ago persecuted out of existence. Fragments of it
may be seen in the latest room at the Museum,
and are occasionally unearthed from the ruins of
some church. But as the Egyptians, like their
pagan forefathers, kept their best stone work for
their temples of worship, which in the case of
the Christians were deliberately and constantly
destroyed by the Moslems, only the pillars and
other carved ornaments which were taken by force
for the adornment of mosques survive to this day,
and must be looked for in the oldest and largest
mosques of every town. In one of the largest
mosques of Mohallet el Kebir there are over
seventy of these Christian pillars, but they may
be found almost everywhere.

The glass industry has quite perished, and

though the salt deserts, if fairly near towns, are

as suitable for glass-making as they were centuries

ago, it is not likely ever to revive. Like the finer

135

Things Seen in Egypt

kinds of Japanese enamel, it needs more care and
hand labour than this commercial age has time
for. There are still some beautiful examples of
glass lamps in the Arab Museum, dating from tlie
last three centuries before the Turkish conquest.
These were made for mosques ; those made for the
earlier Christian churches were all destroyed. I
have seen a beautiful platter of glass among the
sacred vessels in an Egyptian church, but could
not ascertain its date. The sacramental vessels
were often made of glass after the gold and silver
vessels had been seized by the Moslems, just as
the destroyed churches were rebuilt each time
in meaner materials in order not to attract the
cupidity of the Moslem rulers.

136

CHAPTER V

THE ANCIENT FAITH

THE great characteristic of the ancient faith of
Egypt, which survived through thousands of
years of development, change, decay, and
even death — for this one vital truth of the dead
religion linked it with the Christian religion, which
finally overcame it — is the faith in a future life.
In the earliest times of which we have written
record — that is, not less than 4,000, and probably
5,000, years before Christ — this future life was
not to be compared with the life on earth. The
dead man was saved from actual annihilation by
the pious care of his friends, who embalmed his
body that it might not decay, and brought food,
which the recital of the prescribed formulas ren-
dered serviceable to him for nourishment

But the dead thus preserved were no better off
than the dead in the Greek Hades, that dim
abode "where dwell the senseless dead, the
phantoms of men outworn."

" Rather would I live above ground as the
hireling of another," says the great Achilles when
Odysseus found him in Hades, " with a landless
137

Things Seen in Egypt

man, who had no great liveUhood, than bear sway
among all the dead that be departed."

" Other spirits of the dead that be departed
stood sorrowing, and each one asked of those that
were dear to them."

And, again, Teiresias says :

" Wretched man, wherefore hast thou left the
sunlight and come hither to behold the dead, and
a land desolate of joy ?"

These were not the dead that were in punish-
ment ; they were receiving the most that the
future life had to offer ; and in the same way the
Egyptian dead are described as " enveloped in
perpetual gloom," " inert, and incapable of return-
ing to enjoy the light of the world."

Then came Osiris, the first of the dead to
escape from this gloomy world, the way for him
to do so being discovered by the great love and
untiring efforts of his wife, sister, and son, aided
by Anubis and Thoth. Osiris rose to a real
jojous life in the heaven of the gods, whei*e he
was given to reign over a glorious paradise — " the
fields of Talu " — and to receive there the souls
of all those Egyptians who were capable of
following him. The name Osiris gradually came
to denote, not only the god-man himself, but also
the spirits of all those who, by virtue of the same
beliefs and rites, had succeeded in escaping from
Hades and entering his happy paradise.

It was rather a material paradise, perhaps, with
its perpetual feasting, never-failing flowers and
138

A CAIRO SNAKE-rHARMER.

The charmer will suddenly throw his cobras at one's feet. As well as the
snakes, a monitor may be seen. It looks Hke a small crocodile. When not
performing he will carry it on his head and the cobras in a bag.

The Ancient Faith

fruit, and enlarged bodily powers. But it was an
advance upon the older conception, and by-and-by
grew up the further idea of the "bird soul " ranging
all the courts of heaven. In whatever condition,
however, the happy soul was more or lees dependent
on those on earth. The proper formula must be
recited on earth to sustain the freed soul in heaven,,
and everyone was ready to perform this pious duty,
that in his turn he might receive the benefit. The
following is a sample of the injunction to all passers-
by engraved over a tomb of the twelfth dynasty :

" O ye princes, O ye first prophets, O ye high
priests, O ye priests, celebrant and initiated into
the mysteries, O ye lay prophets, O ye officials,
O ye dwellers in your cities, all who may be in
this temple, and who, passing by, may recite this
formula ; If you desire that Osiris Khontamentik
may never cease to offer you his festival cakes, or
if you desire that the jackal Uapuatitu, your god,
whose love is sweet, should make your heart glad
like the heart of a king for ever and ever, if you
love life and hate death, and if you desire strength
for your children, say with your mouth the Formula
for thousands of bread, wine and cakes, oxen^
geese, perfumes, garments and all things good
and pure which are for the life of a god to the
Ka of Sahot pabri, son of the lady Moutnibdidit."

At the funeral the priests offered sacrifices of

clean animals and libations of drink offerings, and

a great funeral feast was held in accordance with

the means of the mourners. Isis and Nephthys,

141

Things Seen in Egypt

the two goddesses whose love had found out for
Osiris the way to escape from Hades, were often
represented by images in the tomb as guardians
of the dead. But the offerings and funeral feasts
were repeated on certain days by the relations of
the deceased, although for the spiritual sustenance
of the dead the mere recital of the prescribed
formula were enough.

Not only food, but servants, were provided for
the dead by their faithful friends. The little
images of glazed blue earthenware which are still
to be met with in thousands in Egypt (many of
them of modern manufacture) were buried with the
necessary formula which would give life to them
in the other world, that they might serve the dead
man. These spirit servants were the earliest form
of the belief in genie, who could be invoked by one
who knew the proper formula, and made to serve
him. On most of them are written the following
injunctions in the form of an address and a reply :
"O Ushabti figures: If the Osiris [i.e., the
deceased] is decreed to do any work whatever
in the Underworld, may all obstacles be cast
down in front of him !"

" Here am I, ready whenever thou callest."
" O ye figures : Be ye ever watchful to work,
to plough and sow the fields, to water the canals
(fill the canals with water), and to carry sand from
the east to the west."

" Here am I, ready whenever thou callest."
There was a further advance in religious thought
142

The Ancient Faith

when the resurrection from the dead became
dependant not so much on the due performance
of certain rites and the recital of prescribed
formula as upon right conduct in this present
world. Then the dead, before the life-giving
rites were allowed to be performed, were brought
to judgment in the hall of Osiris, and were called
upon to make solemn declaration that they had
not committed the forty-two sins. Among these
are the following :

" I have never committed any fraud against
men. I have never borne false witness. I do not
know falsehood. I have not caused grief to the
widow. I have not been idle. I have killed no
one. I have not seized upon any fields," etc.

Then his soul was weighed in the balance, and
Thoth inscribed the result and proclaimed the
sentence.

The worship of animals belongs to the period
of the decay and death of the national faith. It
is probable that the animals were at first merely
the heraldic sign to denote each nome. Then
the animal became " tabu," and from this to
worship on the part of the ignorant masses was
no long transition.

For many of the more intellectual among the
Egyptians of the first century a.d. the preaching
of the Christian religion must have seemed like
a call to reform, and to return to the old faith
in the god-man Osiris, who in these latter days
had manifested himself once more upon earth.
143 G

Things Seen in Egypt

In the cross they saw their old sign of eternal
hfe — the key of that Hfe which Christ, Hke Osiris,
came to give them more abundantly. Many of
the customs which survive even in our Western
churches to this day were borrowed from the
ancient Egyptians in the early days of the Church.
Of these we may instance the surplice — the white
linen garment of the priests of Isis ; the tonsure,
which was also a distinguishing mark of the Egyp-
tian priesthood ; and the use of the ring in the
marriage service. The ancient Egyptians, before
the introduction of coinage, used rings of different
metals for money. In their marriage it was cus-
tomary for the man to give his wife a ring of gold,
in token that he thereby endowed her with
his wealth. This custom continued among the
Egyptians after their conversion to Christianity,
and passed from them into the Church at large.

The Christian code of morals, as we have seen,
was an advance upon, but in essentials the same
as, the religious code of Egypt. It also might be
summed up in the two great divisions — your duty
to God, and your duty to your neighbour. It
lacked the final discovery, " Love is the fulfilling
of law." But the ancient Egyptian, like the
modern Christian, knew that he lived in the sight
of God, and under the shadow of the eternal wings.

144

AX ARAB BIG MHEEL.

After the Feast of Ramadan comes that of Bairam, when the Moslems
throughout the East enjoy themselves. In Cairo theie is held a fair, in which
such sights as this are to be seen.

CHAPTER VI

SOME EGYPTIAN FESTIVALS

IN England we are hardly aware of our good
fortune in having one definite calendar to go
by, instead of the assortment of odd calendars
spread over the year with which Egyptian residents
are troubled. The first official almanac ever pub-
lished in modern Egypt found it necessary to give
five, neatly arranged in parallel columns, and every-
one must reckon with at least three of these in
ordinary life. If you were asked to give accurately
the date of a certain event which happened, let us
say, on All Saints' Day, you must answer : " It was
on Sunday, the 1st of November, 1908, on the
19th of November (Julian), the 7th of Shawal,
1326 (Arabic), the 22nd of Babeh, 1625 (Egyptian),
and the 7th of Marheshvan, 5669 (Jewish)." This
answer would be correct if the event had happened
in the morning. But if it had taken place in the
evening of the same day, your answer would not
be the same. For two out of these five calendars
begin a new day at sunset, so an additional element
of uncertainty is introduced. Nor is the difference
of calendar merely an academic question ; three, at
147 G 2

Things Seen in Egypt

least, must be reckoned with in making arrange-
ments— the English, the Egyptian, and the
Arabian. A fourth, the Jewish, is becoming
yearly more important for business people. The
English and Egyptian months are solar, the
Moslem and Jewish are lunar. Moreover, the
various calendars begin from different times of
the year, and reckon from different periods of the
world's history. In 1908, after our own New Year
came the Greek New Year, on January 14. Then
we had the Moslem New Year on Februai-y 3. But
the Egyptian considers autumn, his time of sow-
ing, the beginning of the year — September 1 1, or,
by the Julian Calendar which the Greeks use,
August 30. On September 26 came the Jewish
New Year's Day. His era is the furthest back of
all — nothing less than the creation of the world !
The Greeks (i.e., members of the Greek Church
in Egypt, who are many of them Egyptians) and
the English reckon from the probable year of the
birth of our Lord, but the Arabs and the Moslem
Egyptians count from the flight of Mohammed in
A.D. 622, and since that event they have managed
to get in 1326 years, while we only count 1287.
The Christian Egyptian dates from the Era of
Martyrs, or a.d. 284. If you attempt to write
history in Egypt, this confusion of dates goes far
to unhiiige the most well-regulated mind. Sooner
or later you give up the attempt, in fixing the
dates of long-past events, to attain more than
approximate accuracy.

148

? 0-

J H "

2 H ^

Some Egyptian Festivals

But once in many years it happens that all these
various calenders agree in keeping holiday on the
same day. This was the case on our Easter
Monday of I906. It was also Easter Monday for
the Egyptians, Greeks, and Latins, and some
Jewish festival as well ; but above all it was Sham-
el-Nessim, the old Egyptian spring festival, which
has never ceased to be celebrated here from time
immemorial by the indigenous population, what-
ever their religion may happen to be at the time
of its occurrence. I think this is the only day in
the year, and that at long intervals, when all Egypt
makes holiday together.

There are three other ancient Egyptian festivals
which all Egyptians celebrate, whether Christian
or Mohammedan, though, while Sham-el-Nessim is
more particularly Christian in that its date is fixed
by the Egyptian Easter Monday, the other two
are called Mohammedan festivals. Yet both, like
the Sham-el-Nessim, go by the Egyptian and not
the Arabian calender, and both are really survivals
from the pagan worship, being connected with
the Nile.

One is now known as the Embabeh Fair, but the
Egyptians can tell you its real significance. On the
night of the 11th of Bauneh (June 18) a single
drop falls from heaven into the Nile, and so blesses
and begins the rise of the flood which is to re-
generate the earth. In the old Egyptian religion
the falling drops were called the tears of Isis, weep-
ing for Osiris, who has been slain by Typhon and

Things Seen in Egypt

seventy-two companions (the days of drought). In
Christian times it seems probable^ from accounts
which have come down to us^ that solemn services
were held on this night ; and sundry experiments
and calculations were made in order to foretell the
probable height of the year's flood. Now it is just
a village fair, which the Mohammedans believe to
be in honour of a certain Shiekh Embabeh, who,
if he ever existed, was probably a Christian saint.
But the Moslems also call the night Leilet-el-
Nuktah, or the Night of the Drop.

The other is the old festival of the marriage of
the Nile with his bride, the land of Egypt. In the
last few years this festival has lost all its old
picturesqueness, and in a short time its original
significance will be forgotten ; for, since the filling
up of the ancient canal by the English on sanitary
grounds, it has lost its distinctive character, and
become an ordinarj' native moulid. It is generally
held either on the night of Saturday, the 22nd, or
on the night of Sunday, the 23rd of August, at
Foum-el-Khalig. But as it is sometimes held as
early as the 15th, anyone wishing to attend it
must make inquiries about August 10.

This festival, like the spring festival, dates from
the days of the Pharaohs, and is Egyptian, not
Mohammedan. In those far-away days the cere-
mony was intended to symbolize the marriage
of the water with the earth, after which the earth
brough forth her fruits in due season. (The
earliest myth which grew up round the symbol
152

Some Egyptian Festivals

called it the union of Osiris and Isis.) The earth
was wrought into the semblance of a woman which
was called a bride, and decked as such. She stood
in the dry bed of the Pharaonic canal, the same
which was afterwards called the Amnis Trajanus,
and in our own day the Khalig. Then the dam
was cut, and the flood rushed in and carried away
the earthmaiden in his embrace, while the people
flung offerings into the water. The festival led to
gross abuses, and when Egypt became Christian
an attempt was made to abolish it. This was
found impossible, so a more successful attempt was
made to change its character.

The rising of the Nile was represented as due to
the intercession of the Archangel Michael, whose
festival occurs early in June, just at the time when .^,
the Nile generally begins to rise. For the marriage f
festival in August a Christian service of blessing the
waters was substituted, and instead of the earthen
figure, the mummied hand of a martyr — presum-
ably a virgin martyr — was let down into the water
to bless it. This hand was solemnly burnt in the
presence of the Sultan by the Mohammedans in
one of the many persecutions of the fourteenth
century. After this, the festival, which both El
Hakim (about 1012) and El Aziz (about 1194) had
in vain endeavoured to suppress as a Christian one,
fell almost entirely into the hands of the Moham-
medans. Makrizi imagined that the accounts
given to him of the earlier form of the festival
referred to the sacrifice of a living virgin. This

Things Seen in Egypt

legend, written down by him, was soon as univer-
sally received as the equally incredible legend of
Pope Joan in the West, and is still often repeated.
Ebers gave fresh currency to the story by using it
as the basis of his novel, " The Bride of the Nile."
The earthen figure was revived by the Egyptians,
as the mock wedding was not objected to by their
conquerors. The bridal procession of boats had
always been permitted, and still continues ; the
feast survives as a kind of water carnival, and
many superstitions have grown round it. At one
time the conduct of this national festival was
given, one year to the Arabs, next year to the
Egyptians, and the year after that to the Jews.
It then became the custom for the Government
to fix the celebration for a Saturday, and to fine
the Jews because they were unable to take their
turn.

There is a very ancient hymn to the Nile, written
by Ennana, whose story of the two brothers is so
well known. I need not say that it contains no
hint of human sacrifice, nor, in the long course of
Egyptian history, is there any allusion to such a
practice in connection with this ceremony. Men-
tion is, however, made of the sacrifice of oxen,
gazelles, and birds, on the occasion of the Nile
festival, just as they would have been slain on the
occasion of any great Egyptian wedding. There
is never the most distant allusion to any sacrifice of
a virgin. More than once, however, the mention
of the birds who cannot descend on the earth in
155

1 ■■ ' '

* •

i ':

*
■>

Some Egyptian Festivals

the time of flood reminds one of the passage in
Genesis.

A third festival connected with the Nile is the
Youm-el-Selib, or Day of the Cross. This is to
mark and celebrate the highest point of the Nile
flood, and occurs about the end of September, or,
by the Egyptian calender, about the middle of Tut
(Thoth). But this festival became so entirely
Christian that it almost lost its national character,
and its public celebration on the banks of the Nile
was forbidden after the invasion of the French,
who, it will be remembered, posed as Moslems
when they attempted to conquer Egypt (see the
proclamations of Napoleon). After certain prayers
and formalities, it had been the custom for a priest
to throw one of the silver crosses belonging to his
church into the turbulent water to sanctify it.
Divers were in waiting, who contended for the
honour of recovering it. This custom still lingers
in some of the villages, and even where the
inhabitants do not venture to celebrate the service
in public it is often performed privately in the
churches, like the similar festival of the Epiphany,
or "the baptism of Christ."

The great yearly fair at Tantah, in August, has
also come down from the ancient days, but it has
long since lost all religious or national significance,
though the Moslems call it the moulid (birthday)
of the Sayid Ahmed-el-Bedawi. It is simply a great
trading fair, very picturesque and very insanitary,
which yearly becomes less important. At all these
159

Things Seen in Egypt

fairs may be seen the conjurers, the snake-charmers,
the prize-fighters, dancing-girls, and puppet shows,
wliich have always appeared at Egyptian fantasias.
The conjurers are worth looking at ; oddly enough,
one of the best in Cairo is now a woman.

Among the purely Mohammedan festivals cele-
brated in Egypt, the two most important for the
sight-seer are the Moulid-el-Nubiand the Mahmal,
or Procession of the Holy Carpet. There are also
the two great feasts, called the Great Feast and
the Little Feast, or, by the Europeans and Turks in
Egypt, Greater and Lesser Bairam. Of course, as
might be expected in Egypt, the Little Feast is
much the greater, so far as observance and popular
estimation is concerned. It marks the close of the
month's fast of Ramadan, during which the
Moslem population, as far as possible, turn night
into day. They are not allowed to eat or drink
anything during the day, so they make up for it at
night, or after the sun has set. It is estimated
that more food is consumed by them during the
month of the fast than at any other time ; and it
is interesting to watch them as the hour of gun-fire
approaches. One of their number, in the European
houses, where it is chiefly the servants who are con-
cerned, or a larger group if it is a Moslem house,
stand at the doorway to listen for the discharge.
Almost simultaneously with the report there is a
long-drawn " Ah !" of relief along the road, and the
watcher disappears within more rapidly than at the
call of any master to where his fellow-servants are
160

THK XILK.

Sunset on the Nile is not only one of the most marvellous sights of Eg^pt, I ut
often yields singularly beautiful effects of light and shade.

Some Egyptian Festivals

sitting round the prepared meal waiting for the
signal to be given. After gun-fire there are not
many left in the streets, but those who are still at
work begin upon a radish or a handful of dates
which are ready in their hands, and your driver
stops at the nearest water-seller's, and reaches down
for the readily proffered drink ; after which he
lights his first cigarette that day, and resumes his
course, hoping that you are a person sufficiently
instructed to know that a drive should not be pro-
longed after sunset in Ramadan. The feast after
Ramadan lasts for three days.

The Copts make no fuss about their fasts, though
they are far more severe and prolonged : forty
days before Christmas, forty-five before Easter,
forty after Pentecost ; the three days' fast of
Nineveh, and fifteen days in August in honour of
the Virgin Mary, besides the Fridays. Sunset
brings them no relief ; what food they take, they
take in the day, and go about their work as usual.
Not only fish and flesh are forbidden, but milk,
eggs, cheese, and butter as well. Nothing is per-
mitted but fruit and vegetables, either raw or
cooked in water, farinaceous food and plain bread ;
while in strict households nothing at all must be
eaten before three o'clock in the afternoon. It is
obvious that centuries of such a diet for nearly
five months every year has been one principal
cause of the weakened energy and stamina of the
Copts.

I was interested in a Coptic lad who was dis-
163

Things Seen in Egypt

missed after one year's service in the Government

railway shops for failing sight, and sent him to an
American oculist who had worked for many years
among the poorer classes of Egyptians. His
report was that he was afraid he could do nothing
to save the boy's sight, which he would probably
lose entirely in a year or two. He said such cases
were constantly brought to him, and were all due
to one cause, continual semi-starvation.

I knew that though the boy was fatherless and
poor, his circumstances by no means forbade him
to have sufficient nourishment ; so I made inquiries,
and found that since childhood he had kept all the
fasts of his Church. I sent for the boy's guardian,
who was also his parish priest, and reasoned with
him earnestly on the subject. He was a broad-
minded and thoughtful man, and though it seemed
to him a want of faith to suppose that God would
allow a religious practice to harm his servant, he
admitted that it was possible that such fasting was
not acceptable to God, and promised to forbid his
ward to fast, at anj' rate for a year or two. On
this understanding I helped the boy to get work
again. Hissight gradually improved ; he was able
in a few years to pass an examination, and has done
well ever since.

Since the Copts came into contact with English
and American Christianity, they have realized that
such practices are far from being essential to
Christianity, and are very generally giving them
up. I believe, and am glad to believe, that very
164

THE CREW OF A DAHABEAH.

They are Arabs, and though their dress is picturesque, it is not adapted for
going aloft or for hurrj-ing. Fortunately, they are seldom called upon to do
either.

Some Egyptian Festivals

few Copts of the present day keep these terrible
fasts, which date from the fourth and succeeding
centuries.

The second great feast of the Mohammedans
does not come after a fast, but corresponds with the
festival at Mecca, and is held in the month of
pilgrimage.

It is the great day of sacrifice, when thousands
of animals are oifered in the Valley of Muna, and
is said to commemorate the sacrifice, or rather the
intended sacrifice, by Abraham of his son, when a
ram was substituted. But the Moslems say that
this son was Ishmael, not Isaac. Everywhere
throughout the Moslem world an animal is sacri-
ficed on this day by all those who can possibly
afford any one of the animals allowed for sacrifice.
Everywhere in Egypt for two or three days before
you may see the brown ram — the favourite sacri-
fice— tethered and fed in readiness.

No dates can be given which will be of any use
to the visitor for these Mohammedan festivals,
since, as I have already explained, they vary every
year. During the thirty years of my stay in Egypt
they revolved right round the year and came back
to the same period again, having gained a year
upon us in the process. Anyone who wishes to see
them must buy a Government almanac — fortunate
now in that he is able to do so — and find out for
himself whether any of them will occur during his
stay in Egypt.

The Moulid-el-Nubi is the feast or birthday of
167

Things Seen in Egypt

the Prophet. This has changed very much since
the suppression of the doseh, but is still a very
picturesque sight. A great camp is made outside
Cairo — in recent years at Abbassieh — of hand-
somely decorated tents belonging to the Moslem
notables and officials and the various sects of
dervishes. Here you may still see the zikrs, which
they are for the most part forbidden now to per-
form in public. A zikr is a formal attempt on the
part of several men to induce self-hypnotism in a
peculiar way. That is what it is ; but, of course,
that is not what it is called. It is regarded as an
act of worship. The men sit in a circle — generally
not a real circle, but a long ellipse — and one takes
the lead. He recites certain phrases, chiefly the
names and attributes of Allah, and accompanies it
with swaying movements of the body which must
be faithfully copied by all in the circle. Some-
times the phrase to be repeated consists only of
one word, such as " Hu " (or " He " in English), and
the leader continues on one phrase or ejaculation
for several moments. By-and-by they work them-
selves up into a state of frenzy ; some fall into
trance, and some into convulsions. It was a zikr
of this kind which the tourists used to go and see
under the name of the " howling dervishes " ; but
that became so manifestly a public performance
for money that the more religious Moslems were
scandalized, and, I believe, succeeded in getting it
forbidden. These zikrs are performed at most of
the Moslem festivals, but the best time to see
i68

Photo by inil R. J.ose.

THK NILE BANK AT WADY SAHA.

This is between the First and Second Cataracts. An empty bottle
has been thrown from ihe steamer, and the boys are rushing into the
water to get it. Bottles are treasures here.

Some Egyptian Festivals

them is at the Moulid-el-Nubi. There is also a
tremendous display of fireworks, through which
Egyptian horses will stand without moving a
muscle, though squibs actually splutter out on the
driver's seat, and Syrian or European horses may
be rearing all round. It is the fashion now to use
always Syrian or European horses, but the superior
self-control of the Egyptian renders him very valu-
able on occasion.

Besides the fireworks and the zikrs, there are
all the usual accompaniments of a native fair at
these festivals, and sweet stalls, for which, in spite
of the Moslem prohibition against making the
likeness of anything that has life, the Egyptian
still makes in sugar images of men and women,
beasts and birds. One of the most popular enter-
tainments is the native swing, a curious erection
on the principle of our " wheels," where divans
full of men and boys go up and down and round
with huge enjoyment. Puppet and peep shows
are always to be seen, and naked prize-fighters
are not unknown.

The prettiest of all these " fantasias " is the
Procession of the Carpet, or, as it is commonly
called, "The Mahmal." In a slightly varied form
the procession takes place three times in the year :
once when the kisweh, or carpet, is taken to the
mosque, where a special guild of workers embroider
it ; once when it is packed and taken in the Mahmal
to salute the Khedive before starting on the pil-
grimage ; and once on the return of the pilgrims,
171

Things Seen in Egypt

when the carpet that was taken to Mecca the year
before is brought back to Cairo. It is always
called the Carpet, but being in Egypt, I need
hardly say it is not a carpet. It is a set of new
hangings for the walls of the mosque at Mecca, of
the stillest possible black silk — black because that
is the colour of the Abbasside dynasty — em-
broidered heavily with gold. The embroiderers
are a special guild of men with a peculiar and
picturesque dress, and the work is done within
the precincts of a mosque.

The best place to see the show is from the open
Meidan below the citadel, whence the official start
is made. You start early in the morning, and drive
up the straight, ugly Mohammed Ali street which
was drawn with a ruler across the map of that part
of Cairo, and every house on the line marked pulled
down. All along the way are parties of dervishes
carrying the banners of their guilds and chanting
as they go. Then a Pasha in a gold-embroidered
coat, with his syce running before him, drives
along in his victoria. Then two big troopers
belonging to our military police ride slowly by
with an elaborate air of being where they are
accidentally. No British regiment takes part in
the pageant ; it is Egyptian from beginning to
end. Though shabby and hideous, the street 'of
Mohammed Ali terminates superbly, for it passes
between the Mosque of Sultan Hassan, the gem
of Saracenic architecture, and the stately Mosque
of Rifaiyeh, unfortunately not finished. Then we
172

ONE OF THE COLOSSI OF THEBES.

Polh the Colossi were erected by Amenoph III. By a cunning device the
priests used to make mysterious noises to come from the interiors.

Some Egyptian Festivals

emerge into an open place, and before us rise the
citadel and the great mosque where the founder
of the present dynasty lies buried. Every battle-
ment, every flight of steps, every parapet, every
coign of vantage is crowded with men and women
all aglow with excitement and pleasure, and
dressed in all the colours of the rainbow, as if
long garlands of flowers were laid about the old
buildings. Finally the carriages take up a place
in the midst of the most good-humoured crowd in
the world. A tattered beggar asks for baksheesh,
a travelling fruit-seller offers us pistachio nuts, and
the inevitable water-carrier, with his tinkling brass
cup, invites us to drink. But they all take a
courteous "No" for an answer, and leave us to
watch the procession. The theatre, wherein the
pageant is displayed, is an open space beneath the
towering citadel, and the centre-point of the cere-
mony is now a little wooden kiosk ; it was once a
rich crimson velvet tent, where the Khedive or
his representative takes his state. The Egyptian
soldiers, in white uniforms and red tarbouches,
keep the ground, and in their midst, swaying to
and fro, is the howdah, or covered litter, ablaze
with spangles and gold, on the hump of a camel
that will do no more work after bearing that holy
burden. And this howdah, a square frame with
a pyramidal top — not the carpet, as is popularly
supposed — goes by the name which popularly
describes the whole pageant, the Mahmal.

At last there is a stir in the crowd — that
175 H

Things Seen in Egypt

peculiar movement we all know when a multitude,
as it were, pulls itself together before the event
of the day takes place. Driving rapidly, with
mounted escort, the Khedive comes up, or his
Prime Minister, if he should happen to be away.
The act performed by the Khedive or his deputy
is simple. Directly he arrives at the kiosk, he
salutes and is saluted by the high functionaries.
These great ones are a strangely contrasted group.
Some are dressed in regulation black frock-coats,
some in uniforms covered with embroidery, others,
like the Sheikh-el-Islam or the Sheikh-el-Saddatt,
sit sublime in robes of silk and turbans worthy of
Abdallah- el -Hadji in "The Talisman." After
salutations given and received the music bursts
out, and the camel, with its glittering howdah or
tabernacle flashing in the sun, goes round and
round sometimes three, sometimes seven times,
while the dervishes on the attendant camels utter
their strange shrill note of joy, and all the spec-
tators echo the sound, and thrill with excitement
and sympathy.

At last the camel is brought up, very dizzy
probably, before the steps of the little kiosk, and
the officer in charge of the pilgrimage takes a
crimson cord which hangs from the Mahmal, and
places it in the hand of the Khedive's representa-
tive, who kisses it reverently and wishes the Hadj
" God speed." Loudly boom the kettledrums,
shrilly sound the pipes, and the cannon thunder a
royal salute from overhead as the procession starts
176

Some Egyptian Festivals

on its way through the murmuring, rejoicing
multitude on the first stage to Mecca. This stage
is not a long one, but only as far as Abbassieh,
where they will all repose for a day and a half, and
then the gay trappings of the camels will be taken
off, and the housings sewn with beads and the head-
stalls glittering with scraps of looking-glass will be
unbuckled ; and, soberly equipped like

"Warriors for the working day,"

the bona-fide pilgrims will really start, and the
properties that are brought out every year for the
great fantasia of the Mahmal will be stowed away
until they are next wanted.

After the Mahmal itself follows a larger or
smaller procession, according to whether it is the
first or second progress of the carpet. On the first
occasion it is not packed up in the howdah, but
displayed on wooden frames, which are carried by
relays of natives. There will often be one or two
of the beautiful old litters in which great Moslem
ladies used to go on pilgrimage with a suitable
retinue.' These are slung between two camels,
gaily caparisoned in scarlet cloth, like all the rest
who take part in the procession. The camels are
one behind, the other before the litter, and the
ladies, though secluded themselves, have a good
view of everything that goes on.

The pilgrims go by train to Suez, and then take
steamer to Jeddah. It was a sad blow to the old
conservatism of Islam when the holy carpet and

i.77 H 2

Things Seen in Egypt

the holy people were thrust into i-ailway carriages.
Sinister rumour says that a telegraph-wire injured
the pyramid -shaped top of the Mahmal, which was
a bad omen ; but, fortunately, nothing came of it.
As it is, even in these days of comparative luxury,
the pilgrims brave many hardships. They suffer
from fatigue and heat and close-packing, and the
fevers generated by these conditions ; but those
who do get back are happy men, and troops of
friends will hail their returning feet.

When the chief dangers of the long journey are
over, and the pilgrims are well on their homeward
way, they will write letters to their fathers and
brothers and all their home-keeping kinsfolk, pour-
ing forth gratitude to God, who, by the mouth of
His servant Abraham,* enjoined men to make a
pilgrimage to the house of their God.

Then those friends who have stayed behind
paint on the whitewashed walls of the houses
pictures of locomotive engines, and ships, and palm-
trees, and raging lions, to show how the occupant
has travelled by land and sea, and has braved
dangers from wild beasts, but is now returned safe
and sound ; and when he is nigh to the city they
bring him on his way with torches and music, so
that the coming back, as well as the going forth,
of the Mahmal is a time of festivity and joy.

A curious incident took place on the first
occasion on which the ceremony was performed

* Koran, chap, xxiii., or the Pilgrimage.

178

Some Egyptian Festivals

after Egypt had been occupied by British troops.
There was practically no Egyptian army or police
at the time, and there was some danger of a
fanatical outbreak. On the pretext, therefore, of
doing special honour to the occasion, the Khedive
was informed that the British army would parade
in the Square, and take charge of the procession
But in giving this order the authorities had
reckoned without Tommy, and very soon found
their mistake. Tommy was not quite so well
educated then as he is now, and believed that when
he was told to salute the Mahnial, he was told to
join in an act of idolatrous worship to a heathen
idol. So Tommy — all honour to him for it — flatly
refused. Collectively and individually he gave his
officers to understand that in this matter he could
not obey them. " Be it known unto thee " —
perhaps that utterance of supreme faith rang in
the hearts of some of them — " that we will not
worship the golden image."

There were hasty and secret consultations among
the high authorities, who were supposed to know
nothing of Tommy's intimation, and an ingenious
compromise was arrived at. It was arranged that
directly the Khedive had sped the Mahmal with
the accustomed ceremony, he should at once enter
his carriage, and drive across and away on the other
side of the Square from that on which the Mahmal
passed. The few Egyptian troops in the Square
kept their faces to the Mahmal and reverently
salaamed. The British troops turned as one man
i8i

Things Seen in Egypt

and saluted the Khedive, presenting the hind-
quarters of their horses squarely to the Mahmal.

There is perhaps hardly a religion or nationality
in the world which does not find its representative
somewhere either in Cairo, Alexandria, or Assouan.
But all the Egyptians proper belong to one of the
three great religions of the modei*n world —
Christian, Jewish, or Mohammedan. Of these, by
far the greater majority are Moslems, though
several thousands belong to the old Melkite form of
the Greek Church, and about a million* to the old
National Church of Egypt. These are the people
commonly known as Copts — a mispronunciation of
the ancient name .^gupt, or Egypt. The Jewish
element in the nation is comparatively small.
Certain customs and ceremonies which have come
down to them from their forefathers in ancient
Egypt are common to all three. The cat is still
held in more or less reverence, and I do not think
that any native would put one to death. The
custom of animal sacrifice still continues, though
there is generally some excuse made, particularly
among the Christians, who will readily disavow any
religious significance, and say that it is merely an
old custom to kill a beast on certain occasions and
give the flesh to the poor. This, however, would
hardly account for the way the animal is sacrificed
— as in the case of a bride for instance. When

* The last census, of course, makes theirnumber less than
this. The Egyptian Christians do not yet realize that they
need not try any more to conceal or minimize their numbers.
182

Some Egyptian Festivals

people went leisurely up the Nile in dahabiehs, an
animal was always sacrificed when they arrived
safely at the first cataract ; but to the European
traveller it was represented merely as a "back-
sheesh " from him to the crew that they might
feast and be merry. The Moslem attaches more
importance to these sacrifices than the Christian,
and as a rule believes that evil will befall him if
they are neglected. A new house must never be
occupied by the owner till the sacrifice has been
duly offered upon the threshold. I have been told
that if an Englishman is sufficiently well loved, his
servants will make the sacrifice at least of a cock
at their own expense for him without his knowledge
sooner than he should suffer. In the great museum
in Cairo, which no tourist would dream of leaving
unvisited, and where you can, as it were, walk
through the history of Egypt for some 7,000
years (the last 700 must be studied in the " Arab "
Museum), models of new houses may be found with
the slain sacrifice across the threshold.

Among the many ancient myths of which
explanations are suggested in that wonderful
collection, you recognize with a start of surprise
that which describes Venus as rising out of the
sea. In one of the rooms there is a shrine which
was dug almost intact out of the great temple of
Deyr-el-Bahri only a few years ago. It contains
the representation of Hathor, whom the Greeks
identified with Aphrodite, or Venus, coming up out
of the Nile, or sea (the word for the Nile and the
183

Things Seen in Egypt

sea is the same), with the lotus and river reeds
about her. The goddess is represented in the form
of a cow, and one remembers also the kine that
" came up out of the river " in Pharaoh's dream.
But the Venus that we see rising out of the sea in
the Cairo Museum was carved by order of the great
Queen who reigned in Egypt centuries before
Homer sang of the immortal gods of Greece.

184

Stereo Copyright, Vndei-wood &■ U.

THE TEMPLE OF SETI I. AT THEBES.

This temple dates from the middle of the fourteenth century B.C. It is a
mortuary temple, and is really a composite chapel for the Kings of three
generations— Ramses I., Seti I., and Ramses II.

CHAPTER VII

THE FIVE CITIES

IN Cairo itself, apart from the Museum, there is
but little to be seen of the great Empire
which dominated the ancient world. But
though there is so little, thei*e is enough to give
the traveller a unique experience — one which
perhaps no other spot in the world can give him.
In one day's sight-seeing he can include the actual
and visible remains of a toAvn life which has lasted
for at least 6,000 years, and probably longer. From
more than one point of view he can even embrace
the five towns — Pharaonic, Early Christian, Arabic,
Medieval, and Modern — in one comprehensive
glance. The best point, perhaps, is from the
lofty minarets of Ebn Touloun. There is a less-
known point of view which is very beautiful, from
the little hill outside the Roman fortress, one of
the rubbish-heaps of ruined Babylon. One of the
many windmills which were erected here — it is
said by the French — crowns the summit and affords
a little shelter from the prevailing wind. From
here we can see the plain right out to the Gizeh
Pyramids, and the sites of Memphis, Babylon,
187

Things Seen in Egypt

Fostat, and even Cairo lie open before us ; while
close below us we have a good view of the Roman
fortress and its old water-gate. There was, twenty
years ago, a Roman Eagle carved above the sunken
gate, but it has vanished like so much else. The
view from the citadel hill is, of course, well known
to eve?yone, and those who can are advised to
climb to the top of the steep hill behind it.

The centre of Egyptian life since the time of
Mena has been fixed at the apex of the Delta, but
the gradual shifting process has been from south
to north, not from east to west, as with most great
towns. The first of the five towns on this rallying-
point of Egypt was Memphis, the scanty remains
of which are covered by the palm-groves between
the river and Sakhara. Among these palms the
principal objects to be seen are the colossal statue
of Rameses II., which lies prostrate and broken
near the track, and a few stones of the great
temple of Ptah, on the shore of the village pond,
all that remains of the sacred lake. Professor
Petrie is now excavating among these palms, but
not much has been found yet except some statu-
ettes. This was the great city founded by Mena at
a date variously estimated from 5000 to 4750 b.c.
The only evidence we have still to be seen of
its former size and importance is the Necropolis,
which stretches across the desert from Sakhara to
Gizeh, the most wonderful cemetery in the world.
Memphis itself was used as a quarry for about a
thousand years after the most important part of

The Five Cities

the city had shifted across the Nile. This hap-
pened partly because of the river, pai'tly because
of trade, and partly because, after the invasion of
Nebuchadnezzar, the growing city on the east bank
to the north was made, so far as we can gather,
the political capital as well. This second city was
called Babylon, and the capital of Egypt was
known by this name down to the close of the
thirteenth century. The actual city of Babylon
was deliberately burnt about a hundred years
earlier, when the Franks invaded Egypt under
Amaury, and the Moslem who then reigned in
Egypt feared that the inhabitants of Babylon —
a christian and already half-ruined city — would
rise to join with the Christian invaders. There
are very few ruins of Babylon left, but one very
important one is still occupied — the old Roman
fortress built by Trajan to replace a still earlier
fortress of Babylon further south, of which hardly
a trace remains. This Roman fortress has been
in great part destroyed in our own time, but the
old water-gate on the south side has been cleared
out, and may still be seen. In this Roman fortress
are clustered six of the oldest churches left in
Egypt, one of which, sunk in the course of
centuries beneath the ground, and used as a
crypt to a later church built over it, probably
dates from the first century. This is the only
Coptic church that the ordinary tourist ever sees,
but though of intense interest historically, it is
not nearly so beautiful as some of the others.
189

Things Seen in Egypt

Whatever may be said of the existing walls and
pillars in the crypt, there is little doubt that we
have here the site of the oldest church in the
world. This part of Babylon, long before the
fortress was built, was the Jewish quarter of the
city, founded, or raised to the rank of capital of
the kingdom, by Nebuchadnezzar ; and to friends
or relations settled here the infant Jesus is said
to have been brought by His parents. To this
Babylon Peter came accompanied by Mark, whom
he apparently sent on alone to Alexandria. But
the Jewish synagogue, which, after many changes
and vicissitudes, is still a Jewish synagogue in this
quarter of ruined Babylon, claims to go back to
the time of the prophet Jeremiah, and shows his
tomb. Jeremiah, we know, did die in Egypt, but
his dwelling-place is generally supposed to have
been at Taphanes.

The name of Memphis only survives in the pages
of history ; that of Babylon still survives, not in the
Roman fortress, but applied to a collection of mud
hovels surrounding an ancient church which still
exists on the desolate site of the city further
south, and is known as Deyr Babloun.

The next town of this five-fold city was built at
the time of the Arab conquest, and called Fostat,
because it developed from the camp of the invad-
ing army. A good deal of this town still exists
in a ruinous condition, and under the extremely
inaccurate name of Old Cairo ; but there is prob-
ably no building now standing which goes back
190

The Five Cities

to the time of the Arab conquest. The site of
the original mosque built by Arar ebn Aas is there,
and should certainly be visited by the wanderer,
but the actual buiklinij which is shown him as the
Mosque of Arar dates from the tenth and eleventh
centuries. Still, the first mosque ever built in
Egypt undoubtedly stood on this spot, and on the
great Friday of Ramadan in each year the Moslem
ruler of Egypt must go in state to offer up the
prescribed worship there. The original mosques
were open courts, with little beyond the four
walls ; the minarets and cloisters and, finally, the
whole plan of the Coptic churches were adopted
in building mosques as the centuries rolled on.
All the pillars which stand in the present mosque
were taken by violence from the Christian churches
of Babylon, with the exception of those used in the
latest restoration a few years ago. The Arab city
of Fostat was built round and to the north of this
mosque.

In the Arab Museum may still be seen the oldest
copy of the Koran in Egypt, probably the oldest in
the world. It was written for this mosque, and
was found there during one of the restorations. It
is in Kufic character, and tradition says that it was
written by a son-in law of the Prophet. When
found it was in a terribly damaged condition, and
only about half of the book remains. It is in-
structive to compare this with the later copies of
the Koran, which increase in beauty of workman-
ship as the Moslem conquerors learnt to turn
193

Things Seen in Egypt

the artistic skill of the Egyptians to their own
account.

The next of the five cities also marks a new con-
quest of the country, or, at any rate, a fresh epoch —
the establishment of Egypt as an independent king-
dom under a Turk, Ahmed Ebn Touloun. He had
been sent as Governor to Egypt about a. d. S68,
but in a few years made himself absolute master of
the country, and proclaimed himself Sultan — the
first to assume that title in Egypt, or Babylon, as it
was then called by Europeans. Having procured
the recognition of his independent sovereignty by
an immense bribe (he is said to have found in one
ancient tomb alone treasure worth 1,000,000 dinars,
or £600,000), he proceeded to lay out for himself a
new city north of Fostat, and lying further east,
nearer to the Mokattam Hills than the river. A
large part of this site had been used for centuries
as the burial-place of Jews and Christians, but this
presented no obstacle to Ahmed Ebn Touloun.
He gave orders that all tombs were to be de-
molished, and the material was used in his own
constructions.

The new town was surrounded with walls and
gates, and a magnificent palace, of which, as usual,
no trace remains, was built for the new Sultan.
He devoted much care to the water-supply of
his new city, and, rejecting sundry expedients
suggested to him, sent for the best architect in
the kingdom, and desired him to bring water into
the new city in a form which should be at once
194

The Five Cities

effectual, beautiful, and lasting. The architects
and mathematicians of Egypt have always been
Gjpts, and Ahmed Ebn Touloun could find no
Moslem capable of the work. The name of the
Christian whom he employed is said to have been
Ibn Katib el Farghani, afterwards a martyr for his
faith. He sunk a shaft to a great depth in the
Southern desert, and brought the water to the new
town on a lofty aqueduct of innumerable arches,
much like the one which, in later times, Saladin
constructed to bring water to his citadel. Both
aqueducts may be seen to this day. The later one is
known to every Egyptian tourist ; the earlier one is
rarely visited : it crosses the desert to the east of
Babylon and Fostat.

This aqueduct was considered one of the greatest
wonders of its day, and when it was finished Ebn
Touloun rode out in state to see it. But one of the
workmen had carelessly left a heap of loose build-
ing material in the wrong place, and the Sultan's
horse stumbled and fell with him. Ebn Touloun
was not hurt, but the fall was a bad omen, and he
was angry. Instead of paying the Christian
architect for his work, he had him immediately
arrested and thrown into prison, where he remained
for some time.

But when he was firmly established in Egypt as
an independent Sultan, and all fear of a retributive
invasion on behalf of the Kaliph was over, Ebn
Touloun determined to build a mosque for his new
city which should surpass in size and magnificence
195

Things Seen in Egypt

all others in Egypt. He also desired his mosque
to be acceptable to Allah, and it was therefore to
be built in strict accordance with the rules laid
down in the Koran. The Koran was brought and
solemnly read before the Sultan, that there might
be no mistake. But when the command was read
which absolutely forbade any stolen material what-
ever to be used in the construction of a mosque,
Ebn Touloun cried out that such a command was
impossible. Did anyone ever hear of a beautiful
mosque being built without at least the pillars for
its colonnade being taken from the Christian
churches ? Where else was it possible to obtain
them ? This one infraction of the law must needs
be forgiven.

The news of the Sultan's perplexity soon spread,
and doubtless the Christians feared that a Moslem
authority would soon be found who would persuade
the Sultan that spoliation of the infidels was not
theft, and might safely be indulged in. But the
famous Christian architect, languishing in prison,
was quick to seize his opportunity. He sent to
assure the Sultan that if the latter would release
him, he would undertake to build a larger mosque
with a finer colonnade than any before seen, and
3'et to observe faithfully the right condition that
no stolen material should be used. Ebn Touloun
liberated him on trial, and the architect, by the
simple expedient, which apparently had occurred to
no one else, of buildiuir piers instead of stealing
pillars produced the desired effect.
196

— 12

-3E
5 .,->.

The Five Cities

The mosque has recently been restored, but
remains empty and desolate, unvisited except by
the feet of Christian tourists. It is one of the most
interesting monuments in Cairo, though it is not
really in Cairo proper, but is almost the only build-
ing remaining of the fourth city, the first to be
called Masr. Masr has always been the Arabic name
for Egypt, and is applied by the modern Egyptian
alike to Babylon, Fostat, Masr, and Masr el Kahira.
It is this part of Cairo surrounding the mosque of
Ebn Touloun which is really Masr Atika, or Old
Masr, though that name has been in our time
given to Fostat and Babylon, and will probably
never be altered — another instance of the almost
invariable rule in Egypt that nothing is ever what
it is called. To try and find out the true original
name of any place or thing in Egypt is like trying
to find out the name of the White Knight's song.
This city of Ebn Touloun's has also been called at
different times El Katai and El Askar.

In the latest restoration of the mosque, the
original Kufic tablet commemorating its erection
was discovered among the rubbish, and is now
fixed against one of the walls. The whole place is
worth the prolonged study of architects and his-
torians. The chief peculiarity about the mosque is
the shape of its arches, which are believed to be the
earliest pointed ones known. It is not so gener-
ally recognized that they also give the earliest
example of the inward curve above the capital
which later developed into the " horseshoe " arch.
199 I

Things Seen in Egypt

There now existed four separate yet contiguous
cities : Memphis, still existing, though almost
deserted and falling into ruin, on the west bank ;
Babylon, which was formerly connected with it by
a bridge of boats, on the east bank, and now almost
entirely inhabited by the Christian Egyptians ;
Fostat, the city of the Arabs ; and Masr, the city of
the earlier Turkish dominion. The fifth city — the
nucleus of the present native town — was founded
to commemorate the conquest of Egypt by a Greek
general leading the army of the Fatimite Arabs.

These were the instructions given by the Kaliph
Moez to his general, one of the Greek children
who had been brought up in the faith of Islam.

" You shall enter Fostat in your ordinary clothes ;
you shall have no need to give battle to the
inhabitants thereof You shall inhabit the for-
saken palace of the Children of Touloun, but you
shall found another city, surnamed El Kahira, to
which the whole world shall own submission."

Except for the last clause, this forecast was
speedily and literally fulfilled. The Greek occu-
pied the country almost without striking a blow,
and the new city was founded with the greatest
solemnity. The materials were laid ready, the
workmen ranged in their places, and then all
waited in silence the signal of the astronomers, who
watched the star of victory. At the precise
moment the order was given, and with loud cries
the men fell simultaneously to work.

The walls of this city were made to include much
200

The Five Cities

of the city of Ebn Touloun, and in many places
they may still be seen, though most of the gates
now remaining are of later date. A new mosque,
of course, was to be built, superior in magnificence
and sanctity to the great mosques of the older
cities. It was not only a mosque, but shortly after
its completion became also a University, and still
remains the most important University of the
Moslem world. The sight of the students who
throng its spacious courts is one of the most
interesting and picturesque in Cairo. Ladies,
however, should not visit it alone, as it is a strong-
hold of fanaticism which a very little provocation
might render dangerous. The Kaliph Moez had
not the religious scruples of the Sultan Ebn
Touloun, and of the forest of clustering pillars in
this far-famed mosque there is scarcely one that
has not been taken from some Christian church.
They are not, however, good specimens, and there
are hardly any beautiful capitals among them.
This mosque is not called after the name of its
builder, which is the usual custom, but is known as
the Gama-el-Azhar. Here may be seen, in their
different wards, representatives of all the different
countries of the East and Africa — Turks, West
Africans, Syrians, Baghadi, Indians, Kurds, Dar-
fouri, Sennaari, Nubians, Somali, Arabians, and
Egyptians.

In this medieval Cairo are all the most beautiful
mosques, descriptions of which are to be found in
every guide-book. The last one built before the

20I I 2

Things Seen in Egypt

Turkish conquest killed what was left in Egypt of
the artistic spirit is the well-known El Ghuri, which
has been restored since the British occupation.

El Ghuri was a mameluke, or European slave,
belonging to Kait Bey, who, much to his own
astonishment, was elected Sultan after the rapid
murder or deposition of four others in succession
since Kait Bey died in 14^6. Kansu el Ghuri at
once refused the perilous honour, declaring that
he was more accustomed to obey than to com-
mand. The whole assembly being unanimous,
however, in declaring that they would except no
other ruler. El Ghuri consented, after exacting
from them a solemn oath that if they were dis-
satisfied with his government there should be no
rebellion or murder, but that he should be per-
mitted to retire into private life unharmed.

He took the throne in 1 501, and after a vigorous
reign of fifteen years, died on the field of that
battle which gave Egypt to the Turks. His
troops had never seen artillery before, and were
struck with such terror that large numbers of
them deserted to the enemy at once. El Ghuri,
attempting to rally his men, fell from his charger,
and was crushed under the horse-hoofs of his flying
mamelukes. His nephew, Tuman II., was hastily
elected, and gave battle once more, but could not
get his men to stand against these new and terrible
weapons. Cairo was stormed, and Tuman was
hanged like a common criminal by the Turkish
Sultan Selim at the gate of execution. This is the

202

The Five Cities

great gate still remaining beyond the Gama el
Muaiyad, called the Bab Zawilah.

The capital of Egypt is still shifting north and
west, and practically a new and sixth town has
been built in the last fifty years, which is to all
intents and purposes European. But no fresh
name has marked either the later Turkish con-
quest in 1517, or the new Albanian dynasty
founded by Mohammed Ali in 1841. Masr el
Kahira has been shortened by the Europeans into
Cairo, and that name now covers the remains of
all the towns except Memphis, which, being on
the other side of the river, became an absolute
ruin about the end of the twelfth century.

In the long-dead pagan city survive two things
to be seen, a graven image and the fragments of
a temple. In the Christian city remain thirteen
churches and the Roman fortress. In the first
Moslem city of the Eastern Arabs we may see the
Mosque of Amr. In the second Moslem city of
the Turks still stands the mosque of Ebn Touloun.
In the third Moslem city of the Western Arabs
we find the thriving University. But in the sixth
great European city neither temple, church,
mosque nor University has been raised to hallow
the whole. Instead, we have built a shrine for
the dead past, a museum which is also a tomb.

205

CHAPTER VIII

ON THE NILE

IN the old days it was a beautiful and restful
thing to go up the Nile. We chose our
dahabieh or house-boat, decked it with Howers
in pots and gaily-coloured awnings, laid in a stock
of books, chose our few companions well, and sailed
away into a lotus-land of sunshine and silent waters
for five or six months. Every evening we tied up
against the bank and walked on shore, or sat to
watch the sunset colour all the west with crimson
fire. We bought our supplies as we went of fresh
meat, poultry, eggs and vegetables, and once or
twice in the voyage we waited contentedly near
some village while the crew made and baked a
fresh supply of bread. Sometimes a halt was
called to examine one of those forgotten cemeteries
which honeycomb the desert for miles and miles
in so many places, the resting-place of all the
countless unnamed dead who could not afford the
costly chapels and stone sarcophagi of nobles,
priests and kings. Even so far away from " civili-
zation " almost all those at all near the Nile have
been ransacked and despoiled by the native
206

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i'S

*-* J3

J3 U

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On the Nile

antiquity dealers. The openings yawn danger-
ously at your feet except where years of sand
have partly hidden the work of sacrilegious hands.
A few shreds of grave-clothing, the broken boai-ds
of the coffin, are all that remain to bear witness to
the piety of the ancient Egyptian and the greed
of his latter-day descendants ; though, indeed,
tomb-robbing seems to have been a fairly common
offence even in the old days Where the pottery
has been broken and left, instead of being carried
away, it is possible for the initiated to guess the
date within a century or two. Those that I saw
in my last journey on the Nile were almost all
Twelfth Dynasty — that is to say, between 5,000
and 6,000 years old.

Or we paused for a day at a ruined, but still
inhabited town, and in the course of a morning's
walk could find inscribed stones be'onging to its
walls or temples with 3,000 years between the
earliest and the latest date, while stone Christian
coffins which held the dead of Clement's time
now serve as troughs for water.

Sometimes in the desert not far from the Nile
we came across a bird sanctuary, generally a little
depression in the sand, hardly to be seen a little
way off. It is full of low mimosa-bushes, covered
with what looks like a dense cloud, but is really
a mass of gossamer, out of which only the topmost
sprays of green leaf and pale yellow blossom lift
themselves. Here are found doves, the beautiful
small bee-eater, and several other birds, all quite
2og

Things Seen in Egypt

happy and tame, with their nests probably safe in
the impenetrable thicket below.

The birds of Egypt and her southern provinces
are, some of them, very pretty, but there are not
very many good songsters among them. Snipe
are plentiful in the marshes, and great flocks of
quail and wild-duck pass through the country
twice a year. The duck are of two or three
different sorts, and many of them, finding that
they are allowed sanctuary in the Gizeh Gardens,
have decided to make it their permanent home.
The brilliant blue kingfisher may be found along
the canals, but he is a shy bird, unlike the larger
black and white kingfisher with its beautiful
butterfly flight above the water. Of the birds
seen in Egypt, but not found in England, the hand-
somest is perhaj)s the sun-bird, or larger bee-eater.
They come in a radiant flock, like jewels flashing
in the sunshine, and with a musical whispering
and calling to each other. It is one of those birds
that are almost impossible to describe — bronze,
green, purple, black, steel-blue, brown, bright
yellow — I think there is even an edge of white
and a patch of red, all mingled in one glorious
iridescence. The female, I think, has only six
colours. Then there is the hoopoe, with its crown
of feathers, concerning which a pretty legend
relates that they used not to wear this crest, but
acquired it in the following manner : A certain
King was lost with his following in the desert, and
they were all dying of thirst, when a flock of

2IO

stereo Copyright, Underwood & U.

ASSOl'AN' AND ELKPHANTINE ISI^ANl).

The first Nile cataract is to the ri§ht. The tower of Assouan has long
marked the southern limit of Egypt proper.

On the Nile

hoopoes flew up to them. The King desired that
the caravan should follow the birds, who fluttered
before them, and led the fainting men straight to
water. Then the King, who is called Solomon,
King of the Jews, in some versions of the legend,
desired to bestow upon the hoopoes crowTis of gold.
But the hoopoes shrank from the offer, and their
spokesman said, " O King, give us not crowns of
gold, for then all men will seek to destroy us
and possess them ; but give us rather crowns of
feathers : then shall we remain in safety, yet all
men shall know that we succoured the King in
his extremity." So the King commended the
hoopoes for their wisdom, and gave them the
crowns of feathers, which they have borne ever
since.

The Egyptian dove is the prettiest of all its
kind, with a curious cry, almost like a human
laugh. It used to sound almost uncanny coming
fi'om the roof of Cairo Church, where the doves
sat peeping through the skylights at the kneeling
congregation below, and appeared to find the sight
irresistibly funny. You see them everywhere, in
the gardens of the towns, and in the country along
the river. There is the blacksmith bird, with its
single note repeated at intervals like the beat of
the hammer on the anvil, and a little warbler
whose low sweet song may be heard from every
tree in the spring. But the only really beautiful
songster in Egypt is the one we know so well in
our English fields, the skylark. The best place
213

Things Seen in Egypt

to hear him is on the banks of the Nile, but not
if you go by steamer, for then the noise of the
paddle-wheels alone will drown those " profuse
strains of unpremeditated art." But as you drop
down the river in your dahabieh day by day, you
are followed all the way by the hidden poet,
showering his rain of melody. As you pass out
of the sound of one, another takes his place,
eternally joyous, eternally young. Sometimes
you can see the tiny speck soaring high above
the plain, but a moment more,

"And. dro\vned in yonder lining blue,
Tlie lark becomes a sightless song. ' '

Then, as you drift northward, you come among
the fields of sleep —

" Here, where the world is quiet ;
Here, where all trouble seems
Dead ; winds and spent waves riot
In doubtful dreams of dreams,
I watch the green ticld growing,
For reaping folk and sowing,
For harvest time and mowing,
A sleepy world of streams."

Swinburne goes on to speak of " bloomless buds
of poppies," but the great beauty of these opium
poppies is not when in bud, but in full bloom. As
they lift their heads upon the bank, and the strong
sunlight strikes upon them, they are like coloured
flames against the deep blue of the sky. The
whole country for miles along the river is radiant
with them — great chalices of sleep, rose-coloured
214

^ ""^ ■ I ■ J ■ rajt til ^^ —- 1 ■

stereo Copyright, Uiidenwod

London &• New York,

THE ISI>AXD OF PHIL.E.

This photograph was taken from the Island of Kigeh. The square build-
ing to the extreme right is a temple to Isis, but called " Pharaoh's Bed " by
the natives. It has no roof, and never was finished, but is one of the gems
of the place.

On the Nile

and lilac and pure white. The petals of the pink
and lilac blossoms deepen in shade as they ap-
proach the calyx, and they are the most beautiful
poppies I have ever seen. But even at this stage
their beauty is baneful ; it is not wise to gather
them, and their drowsy influence steals through
the air even across the river. Well may the
Egyptian call the flower "the father of sleep."

Then the light grows deeper and brighter, and
the men shake off their lethargy, and press on to
their anchorage for the night. The water grows
purple as the red flame dies out in the west, the
stars reveal themselves with a brilliancy hardly
to be imagined in our mist-enshrouded isle, and
another day of the restful river life has come to
an end.

In going south there is generally more of effort,
for you have not the stream with you, and very
often the wind against you too. But then, you
are looking at the longest record of history in the
world as page after page is unrolled before you.
Every temple as it comes is a fresh and absorbing
interest to be studied at leisure. In the old days,
when you finally arrived at the first cataract, your
men sacrificed a sheep at your expense, and dressed
your boat as if for a national festival.

Then came the steamei's, and the Nile became a
mere highway to be traversed as soon as possible.
So many expeditions allowed on the way up, so
many on the way down ; when a herd of people
were marshalled round in charge of a conductor,
217

Things Seen in Egypt

fought for by donkey-boys, deafened by cries for
backsheesh, and came back to the same babel of
sound on the steamer too exhausted to remember
much of what they had seen. It was inevitable,
of course ; one tried to console oneself with the
reflection that thousands of people were able to
make the journey to whom otherwise the cost
would have been prohibitive. But it was difficult
to be grateful even for that sometimes, when
observing the kind of people who took advantage
of the new possibilities. Those who ruined the
character of the people by throwing money at
every stopping-place to be scrambled for, and
allowed themselves to be familiarly handled and
shouted at by every donkey-boy, were at least well-
intentioned and generally interested. But on one
occasion when I went with some friends to revisit
old haunts by steamer there were tourists — not
English people — on board who deliberately played
cards with their backs to the scenery all the way
up, and grumbled when the boat stopped and they
were herded off to rush round a ruin. That, of
course, was their own affair ; but when, on the
return journey, we found they were getting up a
petition to the captain not to stop at any more
of these places, as they wanted to get back to
Cairo, we English thought it was time to interfere.
At Assiout we pass the second great barrage on
the Nile. The first is easily made a day's excursion
from Cairo to the junction of the two great
branches which are all that remain now of the
218

i-, o
< 1

On the Nile

ancient seven streams of the Nile. This first
barrage was built by command of Mohammed Ali,
who laid the foundation-stone with great ceremony
in 1847. It was designed, like all the others, to
hold up the water at the time of flood, and incident-
ally provided a very valuable bridge. But this first
barrage was no use except as a bridge for the first
forty or fifty years of its existence. Its construc-
tion was entrusted to a French engineer named
Mongel, and the foundations were not strong
enough to resist the Nile in flood, so that it could
not be used. It was left for Sir Colin Moncrieff to
decide that it could and should be made workable,
and with the assistance of Mr. (now Sir William)
Willcocks, it was done. After some very exciting
and critical weeks there came a day when the first
barrage could be said to work, though for some
time the working was very risky. When it had
been demonstrated that the thing could be done, a
sum of money was at length granted to put it into
a really efficient state, and two more Englishmen,
Colonel Western and Mr. Reid, were brought from
India to take charge of the work.

Then Sir Colin Monci-ieff sought for the French-
man, Mongel Bey, who had designed the work so
many years before. He found him an old man,
living in poverty and oblivion. Sir Colin left the
Egyptian Government no rest till it had granted
him a pension, and he used to report to Mongel
Bey the progress of the work as if to his chief. On
one occasion when a critical time had been safely

221

Things Seen in Egypt

■won through, Sir Cohn went to tell Mongel Bey,
but found that he had just heard of the death of
his son. He would have retreated, but was urged
to go in, as the old man sat speechless with grief,
and they wanted to rouse him from his stupor.
Sir Colin went into the room, and found several
Frenchmen who had come to condole with the
bereaved father. He took his place among them,
and there was silence for a while ; then, being again
entreated, Sir Colin whispered to the stricken old
man, " The barrage is holding up three metres of
water."

Mongel Bey rose to his feet and flung his arms
abroad with a gesture of exaltation. " Vous
entendez, mes amis," he cried aloud. " Trois
metres 1 Trois metres !"

It is a pretty and peaceful spot, this parting of
the rivers, one going to Damietta and one to
Rosetta. The whole space between the rivers has
been laid out as a public garden, where scientific
experiments in horticulture are carried on by an
Englishman from Kew. At almost all times of the
year it is lovely, but the most brilliant show used
to be in the time of the chrysanthemums, which
do so well out of doors in Egypt. The time of
orange-blossom is sweet, and also this barrage is
one of the few places in Egypt where you may see
a wide expanse of beautiful green turf A wild
grass, something like the pampas, turns the low-
lying levels by the river into a sheet of silver at
its flowering-time.

The barrage at Assiout has not the same beauty,

222

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O in

On the Nile

and is a terrible hindrance to navigation. Indeed,
the people who still desire to use their ancient
water-way do not seem to have received due con-
sideration in the reforms carried out under British
supervision. Till a few years ago the native boats
were still made to pay toll for passing under the
bridges, which, however necessary, obstructed their
navigation ; and no proper arrangements have yet
been made for keeping a clear water-way in a
channel which we have done so much to denude
oi water. Still, the barrages are of the greatest
use in providing water for land hitherto not reached
at the time of high Nile. Assiout is perhaps the
busiest trading town in Egypt. Various roads
stretch across the western desert to the oases, and
besides the well-known Assiout {lottery, many
other things are made here. The Coptic girls of
Assiout embroider the net-scarves with the flat
gold and silver work which are now so eagerly
bought by the tourists. They were originally
made in gold or silver on white net for wedding
veils, and had the cross embroidered in the places
where it was to rest on the heads of the bride and
bridegroom. Then they were embroidered on
black net to sell to the passing travellers, and now
they are to be found in all the principal native
shops of Cairo, and in almost every colour. A good
one is heavy and costly, but, of course, the demand
has produced a much cheaper article, from which
the original significance has entirely departed.

In the desert to the south of Assiout, just
beyond the Christian village of Deronka, there is
225

Things Seen in Egypt

an old and curious church cut out of the rock,
some way up the hill. Since the days of peace
and prosperity under the English the village
belonging to it has run down into the plain^ and
the church is probably now deserted.

Many curious remains have been found at
Akhmin, but chiefly of the early Christian period.
There are several mummies, however, in the
Museum at Cairo which came from Akhmin (the
ancient Panopolis), and are interesting as showing
the transition from the enormous wooden coffins
of Pharaonic times to the portrait mummies of the
first Christian centuries. The face is covered by
a gilded mask, and the body is enveloped in a
painted cartonnage with crossed bands. On the
head is a thick crown of flowers.

Kenneh is also a busy town, but there is no
great ruin of Ancient Egypt to be seen till we
come to Balliana, from which the ruins of Abydos
may be reached. They lie at some distance from
the present bed of the river, and mark the site of
the oldest known capital. Probably a scarcity of
water was one reason why Mena, who heads the
long list of known Egyptian Pharaohs, founded
Memphis, and removed the seat of government to
that city.

In this district, on the west bank of the Nile,
lie the great "Red" and "White" monasteries
founded by Anba Shenouda in the fifth centuiy.
He was one of the most famous saints of his day,
and his counsel was sought by statesmen and
226

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On the Nile

soldiers. He ruled the whole district in a some-
what autocratic fashion, as the stories about him
show. Many of the wealthy landowners in this
part were still pagan at that time, but woe to the
man who ill-treated any of his Christian serfs
within Shenouda's reach. On one occasion, when
the serfs of some wealthy wine-growers were
cheated out of their wages, and obliged to pay an
enormous price for wine which had gone bad, and
could not otherwise be disposed of, Shenouda
promptly called out his regiment of monks, and
destroyed entirely the houses and goods of the
offenders !

At Denderah we meet with the first great
temple still standing, though many others can be
traced in ruined towns along the Nile. Denderah
was rebuilt on the site of a far earlier temple by
the later Ptolemies, and afterwards by the Roman
Emperors. It was saved from destruction in later
centuries, like so many other temples, by the
fact that it had become absolutely covered from
view by the mud huts of the poorer peasantry.

Thebes, now called Luxor, is perhaps the most
interesting place in Egypt. Here is the great
temple of Karnak, which took more than two
thousand years to build, and near two thousand
more to go to ruin, and still stands in ruin ; the
history of Egypt, graven in stone, from Usertesen,
of the Twelfth Dynasty, till the once great empire
became a Roman province. Here are the great
roads connecting these wonderful temples, bordered

229 K

Things Seen in Egypt

with sphinxes, of which so many he half ruined
by the wayside still. Across the river went the
stately processions from the temples of the east
bank to the temples of the west. In the bowels of
those barren hills they laid the mighty dead, so
many of whose bodies are set out now in glass
cases to be stared at by the wanderer from the
lands of the West, which were hardly known to
exist when the Pharaohs ruled on the Nile. Here,
on the west bank, is the temple of Egypt's greatest
Queen, with the long record of her splendid reign
graven on its walls. It was from a shrine in this
temple that the Hathor cow was taken which now
stands in the Egyptian museum. Of the pathetic
ruined splendours of hundred-gated Thebes many
learned books have been written, but even if the
visitor to Egypt had read all those, he would need
several weeks to see all her remains with an under-
standing eye. By the tourist steamers he will be
allowed four days.

Two more great temples — Esneh and Edfou —
are passed between Luxor and Assouan, besides
picturesque Kom Ombo, on the river bank. At
Esneh another great barrage has just been finished
which, it is said, will prove an enormous boon to
the people of the Kenneh district. Esneh is said
by the natives to be one of the healthiest places
in Egypt. A good deal of pottery is made here,
as well as at Keimeh. Then the great river
narrows slightly, and we come to the first of its
many cataracts.

230

CHAPTER IX

THE SOUTHERN PROVINCE

ASSOUAN is the favourite haunt of the
Egyptian tourist, and enormous hotels have
been built there in the last few years. A
few miles to the south the great dam, or barrage,
stretches its stony rampart across the river, and
beyond poor Philae floats, beautiful in her dying,
on a waste of water when the Nile is high. It
is a work worthy of the ancient Egyptians, but it
may be questioned whether they would have
planted it just there. On the island the pagan
temples still lift their beautiful columns to the
azure sky, but the Christian churches which
succeeded them lie in indistinguishable ruin. The
river here was very beautiful at this point, with
its many islands, its swift rapids, and broad levels
of smooth water. Here is the oldest Nile water-
gauge, graven on the rocks by Pharaoh of old ;
here are inscriptions of many dates and many
nationalities throughout the ages which have run
their course since then. On one bank glass was
made in very early times, and fragments may still
be gathered from the desert. Assouan, or the
231 K 2

Things Seen in Egypt

first cataract, was the southern boundary of Egypt
almost all through the centuries which lie between
the conquest of Egypt by the Moslems in 640 and
the expedition by which Mohammed Ali annexed
the Soudan to Egypt in 1820. By that time the
once-flourishing Christian kingdoms of the Soudan,
who had opposed so deteiTuined a front to the
Moslems that Amr gave up all idea of conquering
the country, had disappeared. The slave-trade
which the Arabs had succeeded in establishing had
led to all the usual horrors of war and massacre ;
little by little the flourishing towns and stately
churches had been destroyed, and for some two
hundred years before the expedition of Mohammed
Ali the Soudan had been in the hands of a group
of Arab slave - traders, who called themselves
sultans, and lived by the wholesale robbery and
plunder of a dependant population, among whom
the traces of past Christianity were few and far
between. So complete was the ruin of this vast
extent of country that only a little group of
scholars knew anything of its lost Christian
civilization, and when the Soudan was finally re-
occupied by the English in 1899, hardly anyone
knew that, so far from being a heavy burden on
Egyptian finance which the military exigencies
alone could justify, it might very soon be made
self-supporting, and in time even profitable.

The southern frontier, however, is not now
at Assouan, or the cataract just above it, but
practically at Wady Haifa, though the nominal
232

Stereo Copyright, Uftderwood &■ U. . London & Xew } 'or A,

NILE BOATS, AND TEMPLK OF ABl' SI.MBEr,.

The enormous bank of sand to the right is of a beautiful orange colour.

The Southern Province

boundary is the twenty-second parallel of latitude,
so that we are still in Egyptian waters as we sail
by Kalabsha, Dendur, and Abu Simbel. But we
are here in Nubia, the home of the Berbers,
which has Korosko for its most important town.
Here may be seen the Bishareen Arabs, the
great carriers of all this region. Here still linger
certain ways of dressing the hair and adornment
which remind us of the Egyptians who conquered
this country in prehistoric times. Here, too, one
suddenly realizes the meaning of two lines of a
hymn Avhich had always appeared to be nonsense
before. Whether the author had ever been in
Nubia or not, he had certainly managed to seize
upon one of its special characteristics :

" Where Afric's sunny fountains
Roll down their golden sand."

That exactly describes what seems to happen in
Nubia. You pass by high banks of sand which
seems absolutely golden in the sunshine, and as
you watch you see that the sand is running down
from the top to the bottom like swiftly- moving
water.

Somewhere not many miles from Korosko must
lie the remains of the great walled city which
until the twelfth century formed the northern
outpost of the Christian kingdoms. It was called
Primis by the Greeks and Latins ; the Egyptian
name has not come down to us. The city was
sacked and destroyed by the Mohammedans about
235

Things Seen in Egypt

the year 1 173, and an account of the Arab invasion
was written by a contemporary who is generally
known as Abu Salih, an Armenian who had settled
in Egypt.

"In this town," he says, "there were many
provisions and ammunition and arms . . and
when they had defeated the Nubians they left the
town in ruins after conquering it, and they took
the Nubians who were there prisoners. It is said
that the number of Nubians was 700,000 — men,
women, and children; and seven hundred pigs
were found here. Shamse-ed-Doulah(the Moslem
general) commanded that the cross on the dome
of the church should be burnt, and that the call
to prayer should be chanted by the muezzin from
its summit. His troops plundered all that there
was in this district, and pillaged the church
throughout ; and they killed the pigs. And a
bishop was found in the city, so he was tortured ;
but nothing could be found that he could give to
Shamse-ed-Doulah, who made him prisoner with
the rest, and he was cast with them into the
fortress, which is on a high hill and is exceedingly
strong. Shamse-ed-Doulah left in the town many
horsemen, and placed with them the provisions
and the weapons, and ammunition and tools. In
the town a quantity of cotton was found, which
he carried off to Kus and sold for a large sum."

There are several temples between Assouan and
Wady Haifa, but most of them, though built in
the Egyptian style, are of Ptolemaic or even of
236

The Southern Province

Roman date. At Amada there are several
remains of the Twelfth and Eighteenth Dynasties ;
but the greatest of all — perhaps the greatest in all
Egypt — is the wonderful rock temple built by
Rameses the Great, and now known as Abu
Simbel.

Here sit the solemn guardians of the Southern
lands, those four giant figures of the Pharaoh for
whom Moses is said to have conquered Nubia, as
other generals conquered for him almost the
whole known world. For more than 3,000
years they have kept their station, and still sit,
with calm eyes that gaze eternally upon a
dwindling woi'ld.

239

CHAPTER X
IN THE DESERT

THERE are two kinds of desert in Egypt — the
desert sand which is only desert because it is
left without water, and the desert which is a
desert because nothing profitable will grow there.
The latter is generally salt, like the desert which
stretches away to the Wady Natron, that strange
remote place which still holds a few scattered
monasteries, and was once one of the largest
monastic retreats in the world. It is a curious
double valley running from north-west to south-
east, and must once have been more fertile than
it is now, or it could never have supported so
large a community as it is known to have done.
The two valleys are on rather different levels, and
the depression which runs down them is called
" the river without water." In the far-olF ages
there was probably a river here which was not
waterless ; there is a tradition that one ran here
which branched off from the Nile as far south as
Dongola. Within the last thirty years the
western branch of the Nile broke its banks near
240

Stereo Lopyright, Uiidii7i'\d ■: r. / <,m'. ,■ c- .\<ri I'r/C-.

THE (;HKAT 1'VKA.MI]> of (ilZKH.

This pyramid is really a tomb 5,000 years old, and is built ot limestone.

In the Desert

Beni Salameh, and the body of water thus released
rushed through a gap in the intervening hills, and
ran along the Waterless River. Beyond Deyr
Baramous, the most northerly of the four remain-
ing monasteries, there are still to be seen great
trunks of an extinct forest. Now there is only an
irregular chain of little lakes, generally of the
most intense blue, like liquid sapphire, but much
too salt for human use. Water only slightly
brackish may be had by digging deep enough,
and each of the monasteries has its own wells
within the walls. These monasteries are at once
retreats and cities of refuge where fugitives fi'om
a persecuting Government have found shelter from
the days of St. Athanasius until now. But they
have branch establishments in the Delta where
more modern work is carried on. They do not
engage in commerce, as the original settlers did in
the third century after Christ. It was this first
band of religious celibates under Ammon who
discovered the value of the salt and natron de-
posits in the valley, and regularly worked them
for export to the Rif, or Delta. By degrees a
flourishing community grew up of several thousand
men, all devoted to the service of God, but, unlike
the hermits and monks of many parts of Egypt,
all engaged in profitable occupations. A great
deal of the fine glass for which Egypt was re-
nowned was made here, and the ruins of their
glass-works may still be traced. But after the
Moslem conquest they fell an easy prey to the
243

Things Seen in Egypt

hordes of wandering Arabs who spi-ead over the
country: the works were deserted, the monasteries
fell into ruin, and by degrees the valleys relapsed
into the desolate desert surrounding those four
last outposts of Christianity which the English
found when they began again to work the salt
and soda in the present day.

There is a certain beauty in the desolation.
Long tracts of bulrushes grow green in spring
around the silent lakes, and flocks of birds pause
there for a day or two on their northward flight.
One man saw " hundreds of flamingos rise in a
scarlet cloud " from the dazzling blue water.
The desert sand here is almost white, and much
of it is crisp and easy to walk upon. Even when
you climb up out of the salt lake valley it is not
absolutely flat, but lies in long, low ridges like
the slow heaving of a sullen sea. The white
waste plain stretches away on every side, here
and there a stunted bush, or a handful of dry and
dying grass, but even this sign of life ceases
shortly, and the great desert lies absolutely bare,
strewn here and there with the whitening bones
of camels, as with the wreckage of long-past
storms. In front the low rolling hills shut out all
glimpse of the fertile Delta to which you are
returning, and though the English have made a
little railway to the Wadi Natron since they
began to try and work the natron deposits again,
you can still forget it, and find the absolute desert
a mile or two on either hand. It is the most

244

^ h

In the Desert

beautiful of all the salt deserts, which exist in
numerous parts of Egypt.

But most of the desert of Egypt is only desert
because it is out of reach of water and cultivation.
In the spring a host of tiny flowers take advantage
of the scanty moisture to unfold their pale but
generally scented petals. And much of this land
has been won back to cultivation since we occupied
the country. Every year fresh crops break into
blossom on the sandy plain ; young trees 20 to 30
feet high stand in dark rows, where fifteen years
ago the shifting sands were a constant danger to
the Tell el Barood Railway. Still, there is plenty
of desert left for those who like the desert life — the
long, slow march on camels which liegins at dawn
and lasts, with the exception of the noonday halt,
till sunset ; the wonderful sense of infinity which
the immense horizon gives by day ; the unutter-
able silence and beauty of the starlit night. The
mirage is only seen in deserts where water is
known to exist within twenty or thirty miles — at
least, that has been my experience. I do not
know if it is borne out by that of other travellers.
It is often visible from the desert thi-ough which
the ships of all nations pass in the Suez Canal,
a shining blue lake and green shade gladdening
the eyes of the voyager where only the dry, hot
sand lies in reality. The vision is also largely
affected by the sight of the individual. I have
often been asked to look at the mirage of water
in the desert beyond Zeitoun, where to me there
247

Things Seen in Egypt

was no illusion of water, only the low blue mist
passing ov'er the desert in the distance and shim-
mering in the sun.

Life in the desert is best enjoyed in summer,
like so many other things in Egypt. Of late
years it has become the fashion for winter visitors
to camp in the desert beyond the Pyramids, but
then bitter cold winds pi-evail, and not oidy search
every corner of your tent, but may at any time
bring it bodily down upon you. But in the
summer it is good to be in the desert, especially
at night, when a wonderful sight may be seen
near the Pyramids. Sitting in a little hollow of
the far-reaching desert, in the magical after-glow
when the west burns like a sheet of flame, one is
surrounded by silent, ghostly shapes, filling the air
with soundless flutter of wings, showing black as
they dance and whirl against the blood-red sky.
One moment there was no sign of movement in
all the silent landscape ; the next all the air is full
of this ghostly company, coming forth from the
tombs when the sinking sun tells the hour of
their release. One can well understand how
such a scene may have suggested to the ancient
Egyptian his conception of the bird-soul escaping
from the tomb in search of a brighter existence.
These are not birds, however, but large bats, of a
species which I believe is peculiar to the tombs
of Egypt.

Then the steel-blue nights of the full moon,
when the clamour of the pariah dogs is hushed
248

Stereo Co/>y>-if;ht, I'l:! '-- n ^'- .\'e7u Vo

THE SIXTY-FIVE FEET HIGH PORTRAIT-STATUES OF RAMSES II.

Notice how puny the native appears. These statues are in front of
the rock-hewn temple of Abu Simbel.

In the Desert

at last in the villages below, and the intense
silver light floods everything, revealing much that
passes unnoticed in the glai'e of the noonday sun.
From the white, uplifting cliffs of Sakhara you
look down, as it were, upon a wide sea, but it
is only the fertile plains melted into an indistin-
guishable blue haze. It is not necessary to trust
to memory for the verses of poetry which haunt
the mind on such nights, for the Egyptian moon
gives light enough to read the smallest print.
After the long hot days of the noisy town, it is
like another world to come out into the wide,
silent spaces of the Egyptian desert and the
silent company of the age-long dead.

251

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B85 Things seen in Eg::rpt

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